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ALEXANDER YIETS GKISWOLD 



MEMOIR 



OP 



ALEXANDER VIETS GBISWOLD, 



BISHOP OF THE PEOT. EPIS. CHURCH IN THE EASTERN DIOCESE. 



BY REV. JOHN S. STONE, D.D 



ABRIDGED BY REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG. 



FROTESTANT EPISCOPAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF 

EVANGELICAL KNOWLEDGE, 

11 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 

1S54. 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 
THE BISHOP'S ANCESTRY, PARENTAGE, AND BIRTH, . . .11 



C HAPTER II. 

THE BISHOP'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 16 

CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE BISHOP'S MARRIAGE TO HIS ORDINATION AS PRESBY- 
TER, .29 

CHAPTER IY. 

FROM THE BISHOP'S ORDINATION TO THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY 

IN CONNECTICUT, 41 

CHAPTER Y. 

FROM THE BISHOP'S SETTLEMENT IN BRISTOL TO HIS CONSECRA- 
TION, .... 62 

CHAPTER YI. 

ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EASTERN DIOCESE, AND 

OF THE ELECTION AND CONSECRATION OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, 83 



VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 
EARLY EVENTS IN THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, , .98 



CH APT ER VIII. 

5E EASTERN DIOCESE, AND I 
THE LIFE OF ITS BISHOP, AS CONNECTED THEREWITH. — FIRST 



116 



CHAPTER IX. 

EXTRACTS, ETC., FROM PRIVATE JOURNALS, AND FROM PRIVATE 
LETTERS, DURING THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, .201 

CHAPTER X. 

PAROCHIAL LIFE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, AFTER THE TEAR 1812, . 218 

CHAPTER XI. 

DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, . 224 



APPENDIX, . .249 



PREFACE 



•—- 



More than eleven years have passed away since the revered subject 
of these memoirs was taken to his reward. Doubtless his translation 
was hailed with joy by many redeemed souls who, during his long life 
of much and holy ministration of the gospel of Christ, had by him been 
brought to the knowledge of the Savionr, and had anticipated their 
teacher in their entrance into rest. Since that time many more of the 
seals of his ministry below have fallen asleep in Jesus, and become his 
<; crown of rejoicing."' Many others, doubtless, who differed from and 
opposed him while on earth, now see eye to eye, and in sweetest 
fellowship walk with him in the green pastures of a Saviour's love. 
A dim reflection of this is to be seen in the Church below. "While he 
lived, even his meek and holy character could not shield him from 
aspersion. But now that he is removed from that arena where he was 
so valiant for the truth, and made his divine commission manifest by 
"speaking*' it "in love," the bitterness of party strife has died away, 
and all are ready to unite in applying to liim the testimony of the Holy 
Spirit in reference to Barnabas, "lie was a good man, and full of the 
Ghost and of faith." And as the results of his work become 
apparent, and a better appreciation is gained of the difficulties with 
which he had to struggle, and of the wisdom, and patience, ar 
ness, and perseverance by which he overcame them, there is like 
Unanimity in the conviction that "a great man has fallen in Israel." 
Indeed, so much is this the case — so much has it become the habit 



Vlll PREFACE. 

with men of all opinions and parties to speak in praise of Bishop Gris- 
wold, that there is great danger of our losing sight, in the glory of his 
name, of the principles with which, during life-time, that name was 
associated, and for which its owner was willing to endure reproach and 
persecution. If there be, as, indeed, there ever must be, a connection 
between principles and character, views of truth and works of duty — if 
it be true that the latter are an index of the value of the former, and 
that "by their fruits we may know," not onl^ individuals, but the 
systems which they illustrate, then it becomes important for us to 
know the system which moulded the character and governed the work 
of him "whose praise is in all the churches/' Without this, the lessons 
of experience are lost, and biography ceases to be a vehicle of instruc- 
tion. When we speak in admiration of Bishop Griswold's eminent 
religious character, let us be sure that we understand that evangelical 
view of the plan of salvation which produced that charaeter in him, and 
may, with God's blessing, produce it in us likewise. When we praise 
God for the great success of his pastoral labors, let us ascertain and 
imitate the means by which success was secured, and forget not those, 
meetings for prayer and exhortation for which he was so severely 
assailed, which he so successfully vindicated, and which, through the 
goodness of God, were visited with true revivals of religion, the like of 
which have perhaps never been seen in our Church. When we con- 
template the results of his long exercise of the Apostolic office in a 
region so thoroughly and vehemently anti-Episcopal, and see, grown 
out of what was once under his care, five dioceses, each with its Bishop, 
and with an aggregate of 161 clergy and 11,378 communicants, let us 
call up to mind also his personal meekness and official moderation, his 
abhorrence of every thing that savored of Episcopal assumption and 
his thorough respect and observance of the rights of both his clergy and 
laity. His work is but the monument of what he was. And he was, 
spiritually, what those views of the Gospel and the Church which, 
under guidance of the Spirit of God, he had gathered out of the Holy 
Scriptures, had made him. The melancholy events which have taken 
place in the Protestant Episcopal Church since his decease make it all 



PREFACE. ix 

the more necessary to keep these things in remembrance. The seeds 
of Tractarian error, which, wafted from Oxford, had already, to his 
great distress, begun to germinate in the Episcopal Church in England 
and this country, have since then developed into an abundant harvest, 
and the gathering of its fruits into the garners of Popery has largely 
begun. His watchful and discriminating mind foresaw and predicted 
this result from the very first, and the latest years of his life abounded 
with efforts to bring the Church to a clearer understanding and deeper 
appreciation of the principles of the Reformation. If these eleven years 
of development have taught any thing, they have taught that the safety 
of our Church and her usefulness in the great work of man's salvation 
depend upon her firm maintenance of those evangelical principles and 
practices of which Bishop Griswold was so clear and consistent an 
expounder. Nothing could bring the system of evangelical religion 
more vividly before the mind, invest it with greater charms, and, at the 
same time, repel the aspersion so perseveringly made by Tractarian 
writers, that it is inconsistent with any hearty zeal for the distinctive 
features of the Episcopal Church, than the life and character of one who 
so clearly understood it, so zealously maintained it, was so bright an 
example of its power in the production of holiness, and at the same 
time so intelligent and firm an advocate of the discipline and ritual of 
that Church whose highest office he so long honorably and wisely 
administered. To enable him, being dead, yet to speak, and to do 
justice to his memory by more widely diffusing that impression of his 
worth which ifl cherished by those who personally knew him, or have 
read his Memoir as originally published, are the motives which led to 
the preparing and publishing of this abridgment. All has been left out 
that could be without injustice to him, and yet enough has been 
retained to show that the Episcopal Church, like the Patriarchal, has 
"entertained angels unawares." Pains have been taken to render the 
omissions as little as possible apparent in abruptness of transition, and 
the very fewinstances in which it has been necessary to do more than 
modify the construction of a sentence, or throw in a connecting word, 
are indicated by brackets. In conclusion, the writer would only invoke 



X PREFACE. 

the reader to join with him in fervent prayer that we may both be 
enabled to follow the revered subject of this memoir as he followed 
Christ, and that God would raise up many like-minded <; to feed the 
Church of God, over which the Holy Ghost may make them overs e 

D. A. T. 
Philadelphia, August 31, 1854. 



MEMOIR OF BISHOP GPJSWOLD. 



■•*♦- 



CHAPTER I . 
the msoooE a iSGHxkr, pabehta^ asd bieth. 

To keep alive after death the memory and influence of a 
saaiily the most beneficent office of 
the biographer. Nor is this office always found in the work 
of transmitting to [ : sterity the character and actions of even 
a good man. It is only when, to the qualities which mark 
the good is added somewhat of the attributes which 
stitute the great man also, s his dwelling among 

se dead who are vet alive, that biosranhv has before it 
its richest field, and finds within its reach treasures with 
which it may most largely bless mankind. 

That the subject of the following memoir was preemi- 
nently a _ I man. vast multitudes of the dead, and per- 
haps vaster multitudes of the living, have long and well 
known. That he was also in important respects a truly 
: man. great not _ — . but also inde- 

i it. mil 1 of the living, 

have already felt, and many more, it is believed, of :: 
who survive him will feel, if the attempt now mad 
transmit his memory to posterity should succeed in d 
simple just Its subject. 

To the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 



12 MEMOIR OF 

these United States, the life of Bishop Griswold can hardly 
prove otherwise than a matter of peculiar interest. Born 
many years anterior to the date of our ecclesiastical origin, 
at a time when, under our colonial existence, the elements 
of our present organization and growth lay but in their 
embryo forms, his life measures the whole course of our 
Church History, and runs back beyond the opening of that 
History into those days of simple manners and habits, of 
pure faith and practice, out of which, as from a fresh and 
copious fountain, have flowed the now swelling streams both 
of our national and of our ecclesiastical being. Originating 
in such an age as that which has been named, and living 
through such a period as that which has succeeded, Bishop 
Griswold for near half a century filled, in its various grades, 
the ministry of our Church, for more than thirty years held 
Episcopal supervision over one of the largest of its integral 
portions, and in all the stations which he occupied acted his 
part with singular wisdom and fidelity, and has left behind 
him an enduring monument both of rare abilities and of 
uncommon excellence. 

This, however, is not the place for his eulogy. Let that 
be found chiefly in a simple record of what he was and of 
what he did. 

Something of this record we have, as -written by himself, 
and the insight thus furnished into his own character and 
history will greatly facilitate the labors of him who has 
undertaken to make the record fuller and more complete. 
His auto-biography reaches from the period of his birth to 
that of his consecration, and had not his modesty led him 
into fir too great brevity, it should be here given entire, as 
the best possible history of that portion of his life. Brief 
as it is, however, it will enrich and give its chief value to 
the somewhat fuller narrative of that portion which will be 
attempted. I know not that I can better introduce the 
whole story of his life than in the words with which this 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 13 

precious fragment opens. They are characteristic of the 
man, and will put into our hands a light which we shall do 
well to carry with us, as we trace his opening way from 
infancy to age. He says : 

4; When one so great and so wise as Solomon, on review- 
ing the scenes of his past life, has pronounced upon them, 
'vanity of vanities,' what can there be worth recording 
among the things which occupy the hours of ordinary men ? 
When one writes memoirs of himself, it is natural to sup- 
pose that he is actuated by vanity, contemptible as the trifles 
which he relates. Pliny judges those to be happy who do 
things worthy to be written, or write things worthy to be 
read. To neither of these merits does the present writer 
make any claim. And yet, knowledge of mankind is use- 
ful ; and not only the wisdom of the wise, but also the 
errors of the simple, may do good from the record in which 
they lie. In the life of almost every man, however low or 
humble his state, however obscure or private his station, 
are things which, could they be known, would be useful, and, 
were they well told, would be entertaining to the living. 
And when one has little to say of himself, which is not 
rather to his shame than to his praise, vain-glory is less 
likely to be his motive, and although in the lives of most 
men there are few things generally interesting, yet there are 
few, if there be any, so obscure, that their biography would 
be uninteresting to every survivor. The child must bo 
gratified in having on record the chief incidents of a parent's 
life. Friends, too, and acquaintance, must be pleased witli 
a memorial of transactions, in which themselves or their 
progenitors have been concerned. Such notices are of use, 
and should be encouraged for the sake of preserving a 
knowledge of family connections and genealogies. And 
who knows of what use they may be in the annals or even 
history of any country? 



14 MEMOIR OF 

" It may, indeed, be profitable to write some account of 
one's own life, even if it serve no other purpose than to 
remind or convince us of our unworthiness, and of how 
little profit to ourselves and to the world that life has been. 
There are probably few who would not be humbled by an 
impartial review of what they have been, of what they have 
done, and of what they have left undone. In truth, however, 
the 'longing after immortality,' the desire to be remembered 
after death, so natural to us all, should be cherished, were 
it but for the effect it has in stimulating us to do what is 
worthy to be remembered and to be followed. It is said 
to have been the practice of the ancient Egyptians, when 
one died, to institute a solemn trial of his character, and to 
pronounce upon it such sentence as in his life he had merited. 
To such a trial in public estimation is every character sub- 
ject, and the looking forward to it is, to every well-ordered 
mind, a strong incentive to good and worthy actions. 

" Some written account of a clergyman's life should be 
preserved, that the history of the Church may not be lost." 

One short paragraph comprises all that the Bishop has 
told us of his ancestry : 

" I was born," he says, "April 22d, 1766, in Simsbury, 
county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, and was 
named Alexander Viets, after my mother's grandfather, who 
was a physician from Germany. My parents on both sides 
were respectable, and considered wealthy in a town where 
few, if any, were possessed of larger estates. My father, 
Elisha Griswold, was from the Windsor branch of a numer- 
ous family, the descendants of Matthew Griswold, who 
came from England in the year 1630. My mother, Eunice, 
was the daughter of John and Lois Viets." 

His mother's brother, the Rev. Roger Viets, was a clergy- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 15 

man of the Church of England, and had charge of the Parish 
church of Simsbury, until the close of the revolutionary 
war. To him was Bishop Griswold more indebted than to 
any other person, his mother perhaps excepted, for his early 
religious impressions, and his early literary culture. Of his 
mother the Bishop writes thus : 

" My case so far resembled that of Timothy, that my 
mother's name was Eunice, and my grandmother's Lois, 
and that from both of them I received much early religious 
instruction. By their teaching, \ from a child I have known 
the Holy Scriptures, which were able (had I rightly used 
the knowledge) to make me wise unto salvation.' To the 
care of my mother, especially, instilling into my tender 
mind sentiments of piety, with the knowledge of Christ and 
the duty of prayer, I was much indebted. Through life I 
have sinned much, and in every thing have come short of 
what should have been my improvement from such advan- 
tages ; yet, through the Lord's merciful goodness, the fear 
of God, the love of his name and a faith in Christ have 
never been wholly lost." 

A noble record, this, to be added to the many which have 
been already made, of the value of a mother's early influence 
over the religious character of her children. 



10 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER II. 

THE BISHOP'S CHILDHOOD AKD YOUTH. 

From early infancy he was remarkable for quick intelli- 
gence, an amiable disposition, and a ready apprehension of 
religious truth. Schools were not then, as now, to be found 
in the neighborhood of every Connecticut man's door. But 
his mother, a woman of remarkable intelligence, abundantly 
supplied their place, and was herself the early and the effi- 
cient tutoress of her own children. One of her grand- 
daughters remarks : 

" I have often heard her say, that Alexander could read 
fluently at three years of age, which at that time was very 
remarkable, as few children then learned to read before 
seven or eight. 

"At a very early age he distinguished himself above the 
other children, by his love and clear comprehension of the 
Holy Scriptures. His mother was in the habit of instruct- 
ing her children every Sunday evening in the Church C 
chism, in which exercise he was remarkable for the readiness 
of his replies, when questioned as to the meaning of any of 
its parts. 

" His mother, whom, in ])erson : he strongly resembled, 
was a woman of uncommon energy, dignity, and decision of 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 17 

character. Though a fond mother and grandmother, she 
was vet a strict disciplinarian. Well do I remember the 
deep awe and veneration which filled our minds whenever 
she entered the room where we were. All noisy play 
instantly ceased, and we listened in most respectful silence 
to every word that fell from her lips ; while any word or 
even look of disapprobation which we chanced to receive 
sank deep into our hearts, and was remembered for years ; 
for well knew we that it was not given without cause. 

" Next to the religious education of her children, she con- 
sidered early habits of persevering industry as of the great- 
est importance. All her children were accordingly kept 
constantly employed at an age when most children are con- 
sidered too young to be capable of any employment. As 
early as five, they assisted in various little labors of the 
farm, and when not otherwise employed were occupied in 
knitting." "It was interesting to me," she remarks, "to 
learn that the habits of unwearied and persevering industry 
which so distinguished my uncle throughout his whole after 
life, had so early though so humble an origin." His mother 
rightly estimated the importance to their future years of 
early forming her children to habits of industry. The boy 
who knit " bone-lace " at live years of age, because his 
mother taught him that it was a duty to be always doing 
something useful in moments which must otherwise run to 
waste, or perhaps be fdled with mischief, was a worthy 
predecessor to the Bishop who afterwards, with unmatched 
industry, bore, for more than thirty years, " the care of all 
the churches " scattered over a diocese wide enough for a 
kingdom. 

What little, in his auto-biography, the Bishop says of 
this early period of his life, is contained in the following 
paragraphs : 

"I recollect nothing in my childhood and youth more re- 



18 MEMOIR OF 

markable than the rapidity with which I learned the lessons 
given me. When about four or five years old, I remember 
being often required to read before strangers, who, at that 
day, viewed my forwardness as a great wonderment. In 
about three days after the Greek grammar was first put into 
my hands, I had, without any other teaching, written in 
Greek characters the first chapter in John's Gospel, inter- 
lined with a literal and verbal translation into Latin. The 
facility with which I obtained a knowledge of the Greek 
language much surprised my teacher. 

"They who are now young cannot easily imagine how 
scanty were then the facilities for obtaining knowledge com- 
pared with the advantages of the present age. And yet 
there was then, perhaps, as great a proportion of learned 
men as there is now. The labor of overcoming difficulties 
stimulates, and indeed strengthens, the mind. Literature 
and reading are far more general now than then, especially 
Avith children and females, who, by the wonderful inventions 
of labor-saving machinery, are in a great degree relieved 
from mere manual labor. But the readhig of the present 
age is comparatively of a lighter sort ; and if more exten- 
sive, is also more superficial. My want of means and op- 
portunities for a more enlarged acquisition of knowledge 
has, through life, been a source of regret ; though this per- 
haps arises from pride or self-will ; for I have had much 
reason for believing that an overruling Providence has con- 
trolled the events of my life. In a remarkable manner has 
an unseen hand frustrated my own plans, designs, and 
favorite pursuits, leading me by a way which I had not fore- 
seen, to a course of life, less, it may be, to my honor in this 
world, yet more to my usefulness ; and more, as I humbly 
hope, to the securing of 'glory, honor, and immortality' in 
a world far better than this. My love of general literature 
in early life was, I fear, a fault, as it diverted nay attention 
from things more necessary and more profitable. When a 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 19 

child, I preferred a book to any sports, or play ; and after 
laboring hard through the day, study was more agreeable 
than sleep through the greater part of the night. Had my 
circumstances been such as to indulge this propensity, I 
might, it is not unlikely, have obtained some celebrity ; but 
my life would probably have been still less useful to the 
world than it has been. For, how many learned men are 
there whose learning is of little use except that of self-grati- 
fication? Indeed, in many cases, the learning of men renders 
them less useful to society than others whose attainments 
are yet far more limited. Hours umiumbered are devoted 
to reading for mere pleasure which might be occupied in 
labors far more useful to mankind." 

Perhaps not once in an age, if ever, are we presented 
with an instance of earlier and more indomitable love of 
learning than that which was exhibited in the childish sub- 
ject of these pages. This love seemed an inborn passion, 
which no difficulties could restrain — a connatural flame 
which no waters of adverse circumstances could quench. In 
after life he was remarkable for his habit of silence, even at 
times when he might have been expected to engage in con- 
versation. The secret of this seems to have been, and such 
is the impression of the eldest survivors of the family with 
whom I have had the pleasure of conversation, that his early 
passion for books, fanned by his mother's influence both in 
her occasional teachings and in her daily conversation, led 
him into the habit of spending those moments in reading 
which his companions consumed in the noisy frolics of their 
sports. He was, even in childhood, too entirely absorbed 
in the inward workings of his own mind, and in feeding his 
insatiable appetite for knowledge, ever to acquire the art of 
playing with words at small talk. The master passion of 
his childhood, as of his riper years, made him a devotee to 
books, and his devotion to books made him taciturn. It 



20 MEMOIR OF 

was as natural for him when not at work to have a book in 
his hand as it was for other boys to break away from their 
work to their play. The very difficulties which he had to 
encounter in gratifying his fondness for reading, doubtless 
helped to confirm through life this early habit of silence 
while others were engaged in conversation. This habit did 
not proceed, as we shall hereafter see, from any inability to 
muster words wherewith to furnish ready-made and hand- 
some clothing for his thoughts. In short, my inquiries 
amidst the scenes of his childish days have satisfied me that, 
while he was a bright and beautiful boy of exceedingly quick 
parts, of sweetly amiable temper, and of merely cultivated 
habits of taciturnity, he could then, as well as in subsequent 
life, whenever he chose to do so, talk like a book, and let 
his words flow like " the running brook ;" and was early re- 
markable for the power of saying pithy and striking, and 
even sharp and witty things. 

The period during which he continued under his mother's 
more special training extended to the close of his tenth 
year, covering thus the most important ten years, so far as 
the formation of character is concerned, in the life of every 
man. During even this period, however, he enjoyed some- 
thing of the advantages of his uncle's care. 

" There was," says the auto-biography, " one circumstance 
of my life which I would ever think and speak of with 
thankfulness to God. About the time of my birth, the Rev. 
Roger Viets, my mother's brother, returned from England 
in Priest's orders, and took charge of the parish in which I 
lived. For several years, he was an inmate in my father's 
family, and for most of the time, till my twentieth year, I 
lived with him. He was an excellent scholar, with a rare 
talent for communicating knowledge to others. From my 
childhood," he had a strong partiality for rue, and was at 
great pains to instruct me in everything which he supposed 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. '21 

might be useful to me through life, especially in classical 
knowledge. Even when laboring in the field, (for in those 
clays country clergymen thought it no disgrace or departure 
from duty to labor, as did St. Paul, for their own temporal 
support.) when laboring in the field together, as we did for 
hundreds of days, he would still continue his instructions."' 
And, as the Bishop has often told his worthy companion, 
who now survives him in her widowhood, many are the 
Latin lessons which he has studied by taking his book from 
his pocket and poring over its contents while u riding 
horse w for his ploughman uncle. 

I have remarked that till he was ten years old he remained 
under his mother's care. Afterwards, at his uncle's special 
request, he was allowed to reside with him, and prosecute 
his studies under his more immediate eye. 

Mr. Viets, as a fine scholar, had indulged his taste in col- 
lecting one of the largest and best-selected libraries then 
known in those parts. He was also keeper of the parish 
library, a collection of considerable value, which seems to 
have been made when the parish was first organized, and 
endowed by the zeal and liberality of Mr. Crozier, and the 
gentlemen of Boston and Newport. Of both these libraries 
young Alexander had the unrestricted use so long as his 
uncle remained in the States ; and among their rich contents 
gratified his love of reading whenever he had a moment's 
leisure from either labor or the studies of the school. 

What the earliest tastes of young Griswold were, so far 
as his love of books sought favorite indulgence, may be - 
from the following, which I take, in substance, from the 
account of his niece : 

c; Works of imagination seem to have been his favorite 
reading at that age. He was extremely fond of plays, par- 
ticularly those of Shakspeare. The acting of pla; then 
an occasional chosen amusement with the children of the 



22 MEMOIR OF 

neighborhood; and at the early age of seven Alexander per- 
formed the part of page in ' Fair Rosamond,' to the great 
admiration of all the spectators. When older, he still 
retained a fondness for these juvenile exhibitions; and at 
the age of fifteen acted the part of Zanga, in Dr. Young's 
Revenge. His performance was so striking as to call forth 
bursts of applause from his audience, which consisted of the 
greater part of the inhabitants of Simsbury. Many years 
since that time, I have heard the aged people of the neigh- 
borhood speak of that performance as surpassing any thing 
of the kind which they had ever witnessed ; especially in 
c the death-scene,' as they called it. * No actor in the Ameri- 
can company,' (the name of a dramatic corps at that time 
performing in Hartford,) said they, ; could compare with 
him. 5 " 

This, to such as have known Bishop Griswold only as a 
Bishop, will be a new and doubtless an unexpected aspect 
of his early character, tastes, and capabilities. That the boy, 
who afterward grew up into the peculiarly grave, chastened, 
and holy man of God, should have had such an early fond- 
ness for the drama, and have been able to electrify even a 
country audience by the force of his acting, has been even 
to the present writer a matter of surprise ; although I have 
long been aware of the deep love of poetry, and of the deep 
and true power of sentiment which lay concealed, even till 
old age, among the rudiments of his rich nature, and which 
were kept hidden there by the restraints of high and holy 
principle. 

Nevertheless, we shall err if we suppose that the trait in 
his character now in view was ever allowed to exert much 
influence over the main course of his pursuits, or to interfere 
injuriously with the serious and religious purposes and con- 
victions of his early days. For it is of this very period 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 23 

of his life, between seven and fifteen, that he speaks in 
the following interesting paragraphs of the auto-bio- 
graphy : 

" I have had, from a child, a belief and trust in God's 
overruling providence, which orders every thing for the best, 
and makes ' all things work together for good to them that 
love him.' Of this belief and trust I am far from boasting : 
for in truth and with shame I acknowledge that I have in 
many things erred and strayed from his righteous ways ; 
yea, a thousand times have I wondered that blessings unnum- 
bered should be continued to a creature so ungrateful and 
so unworthy. It was through his blessing that I was enabled 
to gain knowledge, in almost any branch which I pursued, 
with more than ordinary rapidity ; and while I (vainly per 
haps) felt a confidence that when, as for some years I 
expected, I should become a student at Yale College, none 
would go before me, it was He who designed for me what I 
now believe to be better things." 

Again : 

" I had an early experience of the comforts of religious 
hope, how well founded it is not necessary now to inquire. 
At the age of about ten years," (probably just before he 
went to live with his uncle Viets,) " I was reduced by dis- 
tressing sickness to the verge of the grave, and for several 
hours was supposed to be dying. Never can I forget with 
what lively hope and joy unspeakable, amidst great bodily 
sufferings, I looked forward to the blessedness of the heavenly 
state. Should it please the Lord at the time, now near at 
hand, when I shall be at the point to die, to vouchsafe me 
the like peace and joy in believing, how could I worthily 
magnify his name! Had I then died, it would not pro- 
bably by any one now living be remembered or known 
that such a person ever existed. So soop arc we forgotten 



24 MEMOIR OF 

here ! But : the righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
brance.' "Whether it had been better for me to have died 
then, God only knows. He had, it seems, a work for me to 
do. While parental affection, with distressing anxiety, was 
watching for the last breath, an ulcer broke within, and 
from that time I gradually recovered. Several times since 
has my life been very providentially preserved ; and in two 
instances especially, seemingly almost by miracle, have I 
been rescued from death. A life so preserved should have 
been more faithfully devoted to him who gave it." 

During the period of his residence with his uncle occur- 
red the struggle of the colonies for independence. In this 
war his uncle, in common with many of the clergy of the 
Church of England, had resolved to remain neutral. At its 
successful close the question was to be decided, What would 
become of those clergy of the English Church who had not 
favored the Eevolution, and whose principles and tastes 
were not such as to relish its result ? The decision of this 
question bore directly on the case of Mr. Viets ; and the 
step by which he decided it led to the early marriage and 
almost to the self-expatriation of his nephew from the land 
of his birth. 

"After the conclusion of the peace," (continues the auto- 
biography,) "when the British government had acknow- 
ledged the independence of these United States, the salaries 
which our clergy had received from England were discon- 
tinued, and as they had depended chiefly on that missionary 
aid for the support of their families, they were now suddenly 
left almost destitute. Their parishioners indeed soon began 
to make provision for their relief; but it was not adequate 
to the sustaining of even their accustomed humble style of 
living. Under these circumstances, in compassion of their 
wants, and in consideration of their fidelity, the Propaga- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 25 

tion Society offered to continue and even to increase their 
stipends on condition of their removing into the British 
dominions, where parishes were assigned them. • My uncle, 
after several months of deliberation, consented, as did several 
others, to make the change. His great partiality for me 
made him very unwilling to leave me behind ; and he accord- 
ingly urged me much, and most kindly, to accompany him. 
Such a change on my part, requiring me to leave my native 
land for a foreign province, and to abandon the pleasant and 
fertile valleys of Connecticut for a new settlement in so cold 
and unpromising a country as Nova Scotia, was to me dis- 
agreeable, and seemed also unwise. Still, such was my 
great regard for my uncle that I finally consented to accom- 
pany him, and to share his fortunes as I had shared his 
favor. But here a difficulty arose. I was, even at that 
early age, engaged in affection to the daughter of one of my 
neighbors, whose name was Elizabeth Mitchelson. Separa- 
tion was to us both a painful thought. Yet we were too 
young to be married, as I was but little past nineteen, and 
she more than two years younger than myself. Neverthe- 
less, it was finally agreed that 1 should wholly relinquish my 
purpose of entering college, that we should be married, and 
that both should accompany my uncle's family to Digby, 
the place of his expected settlement in Nova Scotia. Our 
marriage accordingly took place the latter part of the year 
1785." 

Well might he say in subsequent life, " In a remarkable 
manner has an unseen hand frustrated my own plans and 
designs." This very marriage, which was intended to insure, 
proved the occasion of preventing his contemplated removal 
from the States. His account continues : 



"In 1786, my uncle visited and passed the summer m 

his new parish; returning in the autumn to Connecticut 

9 



26 MEMOIR OF 

While he was absent I lived in his family, and had charge 
of his temporal affairs. The next year he removed to Nova 
Scotia with his family, and one of my sisters, then quite 
young, accompanied them. But, in the mean time, my 
wife's parents had made inquiries respecting Digby and its 
climate ; the result of which was such unfavorable views of 
the country that they were unwilling their daughter should 
go thither. Their opposition was so serious that I finally 
yielded to their feelings and remained behind. 

" Thus, a second time, was frustrated my plan of life. 
My early marriage, however imprudent in itself it may 
seem, was undoubtedly, in the hand of Providence, the 
occasion of preventing my settlement in a foreign and unplea- 
sant land. What, in the event of my purposed removal, 
would have been my life and fortune, and whether I should 
have been more or less useful in the world, God only 
knows. I view the circumstance just recorded as a happy 
event, and desire to be duly thankful that my removal was 
prevented." 

The period of youth, now closed, was to him one of 
severe discipline amidst rugged toils both of body and of 
mind ; and, what is perhaps of more importance, this disci- 
pline came amidst the daily influences of stern virtue and 
lofty principle in others, put continually to the proof under 
the pressure and the scrutiny of one of the most thoroughly 
energizing conflicts that have ever acted on the characters 
of either individuals or communities. Trained in such a 
school, his whole constitution, both of body and of mind, 
became remarkably hardy, inured to labor and to suffering, 
and capable of any effort and of any endurance to which, in 
the vicissitudes of coming life, he might be called ; while, at 
the same time, his character became a rare combination of 
incorruptible honesty, inflexible integrity, and immovable 
firmness, with the most unaffected modesty, the most inarti- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 27 

ficial simplicity, and the most unblemished purity. Some, 
indeed, have supposed that there was in his nature a yield- 
ing amiableness incompatible with firmness and decison. 
But such did not know him. He was, it is true, most 
amiable in his disposition ; and within certain limits, and on 
questions of mere expediency or personal convenience, yield- 
ing perhaps even to a fault. But on questions of principle, 
conscience, duty, no man was ever more decided or more 
firm than he. On any such question, whoever attempted to 
influence, to move, to change him, found in him a Dentatus, 
with his back against the rock of his own convictions, inca- 
pable of retreat, and ready to sell his life dearly in defence 
of truth and right. 

Of his attainments in knowledge during the first nineteen 
years of his life, it is difficult to speak with precision. And 
yet we can not but think highly of them, if we reflect that, 
while laboring in agricultural pursuits with others of his 
age and family, and for as many hours as they, he had, at 
the time of his unexpectedly early marriage, qualified him- 
self for entering the Senior class of Yale College, and in 
addition to all this, read almost every volume in the valu- 
able library of his uncle Viets ! What results in scholar- 
ship would not such a mind, with such indomitable habits 
of industry, have achieved had his whole time been devoted 
to the gratification of his one insatiable desire ! 

Of his religious character at this period, it will be suffi- 
cient to say, that in its elements it was distinctly formed 
and deeply fixed ; and that, although it waited those fuller 
developments which it was to receive from God's special 
dealings with him, yet there could be no mistaking the main 
direction which it had assumed. His bias toward the minis- 
try was early ; all his studies, as he advanced in life, were 
more and more exclusively drawn that way ; and although, 
as we shall see, there was a period during which all imme- 
diate views to the ministry were abandoned, yel even then 



28 MEMOIR OF 

his reading was such as to increase his stock of qualifications 
for the sacred office. 

Hitherto we have seen him only as an object of peculiarly 
tender affection, ever watchful care, and well-applied private 
instruction, from the natural friends and guardians of his 
youth, especially from his kind and devoted uncle. Here- 
after, we are to see him cast alone, as it were, on the world, 
with naught but Providence for his guide, and his own ener- 
gies as his stimulus ; left at a very early age in the care of 
a growing family, to buffet the stormy waves of life, and to 
struggle both for subsistence and for usefulness against dif- 
ficulties such as rarely beset youthful enterprise. 



Risnor GRISWOLD. 29 



CHAPTER III. 



Of this portion of Mr. Griswold's life I have been able 
to obtain few notices, other than those which he has himself 
left in the auto-biography. His account of this period thus 
opens : 

"After my uncle's final removal in 1787, I was for some 
time undecided what course to follow. Some years previ- 
ous, I had considered myself as designed for the Christian 
ministry. But now, having no longer his aid and his library, 
I relinquished, for several years, the thought of applying for 
holy orders ; and for some time deliberated with myself and 
consulted with my friends on the question, what course of 
life I should pursue. They recommended the study of the 
law. I remember that when a lad, my companions used 
familiarly to call me ' the lawyer ;' from a habit, which I 
then had, of arguing and disputing on various questions and 
subjects. With the recommendation of my friends, there- 
fore, I so far complied as to read law, some part of my time, 
for two or three years ; not, however, with the design of 
applying for admission to the bar, but partly from a liking 
to the study, and chiefly with a view of qualifying myself 
for any business of a public nature to which I might, not 
improbably, be called. To such, indeed, I soon began to be 



30 MEMOIR OF 

called ; and even had some flattering prospects of rising in 
public estimation." 

Distinguished in the law, in the highest and best sense, he 
undoubtedly might have become ; for few minds have powers 
better adapted, whether to the study of legal science or to 
the practice of the legal art, than his own. The chief, indeed 
the only peculiarities which kept him so long from popular 
notice and from immediate influence in the Church, (his 
native modesty and his acquired taciturnity,) would at least 
have so far yielded, under the keener excitements, the closer 
attrition, and the greater freedom of the courts, as to have 
left no barriers in his way to any legal eminence on which 
he might have fixed his eye ; while his ready wit, his playful 
fancy, his power at pungent satire and rebuke, his uncom- 
monly quick and keen perceptions, and his unquestionably 
profound and accurate judgment (qualities, several of which, 
as a minister of Christ, he kept so effectually under the 
stern and holy restraints of a religious conscience, that but 
few were even aware of their existence in his character) 
would naturally have come out into distinct and full activity, 
and insured success to his highest aspirations. vBut God 
designed better things than these for his Church ; and we 
may add, even higher things than these for his servant. 

Inducements of another kind also presented themselves. 

" Observing," he says, " with what eagerness almost all 
were in pursuit of wealth, how much influence the rich had 
in society, and indeed how much, if rightly used, riches 
might add to the comfort and happiness of life, and to the 
means of doing good, I had some serious thoughts of devot- 
ing my efforts to the acquisition of wealth ; not doubting 
that, with my habits of economy and patient industry, I 
should probably succeed. These thoughts, however, held 
my mind but for a short period ; for I had, even thus early, 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 81 

conceived an indifference to wealth beyond what either reli- 
gion or true philosophy requires. Wealth is certainly a 
great blessing, in so far as it gives us the means of doing 
much good both for ourselves and for others. To despise it 
is to despise or be indifferent to the good which it might be 
the means of doing. A Christian is in duty bound to be 
industrious and frugal ; and should endeavor to acquire more 
than he needs, if for no other purpose, ' that he may have to 
give to him that needeth.' 

" The cultivation of literature was, in truth, what I most 
desired. But to the indulgence of this early and strong 
passion of my mind, the wants of an increasing family for 
the time presented an insurmountable obstacle, and con- 
strained me for a few years to devote a large part of my 
time to the cultivation of a small farm, which then and for 
many years afterward belonged to me. 

" During these years of indecision, however, reading was 
not neglected, nor was I uninterested or wholly unoccupied 
in the affairs of religion and the Church. I became a com- 
municant at the age of twenty, and was confirmed, with 
many others, on occasion of Bishop Seabury's first visit to 
our parish. In the affairs of this parish I was much con- 
sulted, and not a little engaged. My knowledge of music 
and practice of Psalmody, as there were then very few 
organs in the country, made me of use both in teaching and 
in leading the choir. When the parish was vacant, and 
when its minister was absent, I assisted in the other services, 
and finally, being urged to speak on other occasions, my 
friends began to think that the weakness of my voice was 
not a good reason for relinquishing my early purpose of 
taking orders." 

What the "reading," which he, with characteristic modesty, 
simply says, "was not neglected," cost him, few have ever 
known. " The events of his life," says his son-in-law, Dr. 



o2 MEMOIR OF 

Tyng, " had been a discipline in very narrow eircumsta, jes, 
and the influence of this he carried through the whole of his 
succeeding years. His early marriage" and his condition as 
a working farmer, rendered his education a series of diffi- 
culties. He has told us, that when he was attempting to 
prepare himself for the ministry, he was obliged to labor 
all the day on his farm, and, not being able to afford him- 
self adequate lights, he was in the habit of stretching him- 
self on the hearth, with his books before him, and by the 
light of pine-knots, as they blazed in the chimney corner, 
pursuing his studies for hours after his wife and children 
were asleep!" 

" His early ardor for information," adds Dr. Tyng, " fol- 
lowed him to the very close of life. He was always a hard 
student, and one of the most perfect and varied scholars 
with whom I have ever been acquainted. His peculiar 
diffidence and silence rendered it difficult to draw from him 
his stores of learning, but I could never consult him on any 
question, in any branch of study, without finding him per- 
fectly acquainted with it. In languages and in history, as 
well as in the abstract sciences and in theology, he was 
fully prepared for every occasion." 

What the Bishop says in the extract last made from the 
auto-biography, on the subject of his becoming a communi- 
cant at the age of twenty, and of his being confirmed during 
the first visit of Bishop Seabury to the parish in Simsbury, 
is indeed a brief account of those important events of his 
life, and it would have added greatly to the interest of this 
part of the memoir, if he had been much more full in his 
narration of those events. But it must be remembered, that 
if we except the precious tokens and foretastes which were 
sent him from heaven during his dangerous illness at ten 
years of age, there was evidently nothing remarkable in the 
early developments of his religious character. Its foun- 
dations wefe laid, its principles were fixed, its elements 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 33 

were gathered, and foretokenings of its future growth and 
ripeness showed themselves. But at the age of which I am 
now speaking, there was nothing of a very special or strongly 
marked character in either his feelings themselves, or the 
events of his life as influenced by them. 

To return now to the question which had begun again to 
occupy his thoughts, and to be urged again on his considera- 
tion by his friends, whether he should at length decide upon 
entering the ministry, he says : 

" To this I was much urged, especially by the Rev. Mr. 
Todd, who had succeeded my uncle in the Simsbury parish. 
By very serious conversations he at length convinced mo, 
that the clerical profession was that which the leadings of 
God's providence evidently held forth to my view ; assuring 
me at the same time that, in this profession, there could be 
no doubt of my success. 

"Some years previous, as is known, I had considered 
myself as designed for the Christian ministry. My advan- 
tages, as preparatory to the work, were even then consider- 
able. From being so much with an Episcopal clergyman, 
travelling with my uncle in his visits to his clerical brethren 
— to whom he ever had a pleasure in introducing me — and 
favored with his library, which for a private one in ti, 
times was thought to be very large, and almost the whole of 
which I read* I had become early and well acquainted with 
Church affairs, especially with the churches and clergy then 

* The words here italicised are in the autobiography erased, evidently 
at the suggestion of an afterthought started by the bishop's modesty. But 
they are distinctly traceable under the erasure ; and I have ventured 
to move the line with which ho erased them a little lower down, as, on 
the whole, its more proper place — as no longer capable there of inflict- 
ing pain on his modest feelings, and as doing him a pieoe <»t' posthu- 
mous justice, which, while living, lie seemed so unambitious of doing 
to himself. 

2* 



34 MEMOIR OF 

existing in Connecticut, As this knowledge commenced in 
childhood, at my present age, seventy-four, I might perhaps 
truly say that no one now living has been longer or better 
acquainted with the Protestant Episcopal Church in New- 
England (might he not have added, in the United States ?) 
than I." 

" The weakness of my voice had indeed led me early to 
suppose that I could never, as a public speaker, be of much 
use in the Church ; yet I had hoped that, through divine 
grace, I might, in the other exercises of the ministry, be the 
instrument of some good. I used to think, too, that the 
ministerial profession would be the means of keeping me 
steadfast in the Christian faith ; and with shame I must now 
add, that the thought of its giving me more leisure for 
indulging my ardent love of reading had, at that time, too 
much influence on my mind. Reading for the pleasure of 
reading, with no particular view to qualification for the bet- 
ter performance of the duties of our profession, is, to say the 
least, quite as inconsistent with the clerical office as laboring 
with our hands for the bread of life. By the latter, as was 
the case with St. Paul, we help to support ourselves and 
others, and (what is too little considered) render ourselves 
less burdensome to those among whom we minister. This 
is worthy of special consideration in New-England, where 
the division of Christians into so many sects, societies, and 
denominations renders the support of a minister for each a 
heavy burden upon the people. 

" We know well that, as St. Paul says, c The Lord has 
ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the 
Gospel ;' and many Christians, no doubt, neglect their duty 
by giving so little for its support. Moreover, we dare not 
say it is God's will that there should be such divisions 
among Christians as to compel us thus to ' heap to ourselves 
teachers.' Nevertheless, it is remarkable that St. Paul, 
immediately after the words just cited from 1 Cor. 9, shows 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 35 

that, for himself, he had not claimed a maintenance from the 
people ; and he speaks of it as what, in his exercise of the 
ministry, was most deserving of reward or praise, that, when 
he preached the Gospel, he had made it without charge to 
his hearers. To the elders of Ephesns he declares, Acts xx., 
" Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto 
my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have 
showed you all things, how that, so laboring, ye ought to 
support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord 
Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive.' Whether I am right or wrong, I have ever admired 
this trait in St. Paul's character ; and ever since I have been 
a minister of Christ, have thought it my duty, in some 
degree to follow his example. This I have so far done that, 
while I have thankfully received what has been freely given, 
as he also did, I have never complained that it was too little. 
Though insufficient for my support, I have preferred labor- 
ing with my own hands, and other means of living, rather 
than that any thing should be added to the people's burden. 
How much a more general conformity to the Apostle's views 
and practice, and a less practical conformity to the fashions 
of the world, by the ministers of Christ, would tend to the 
increase of true religion, they have different opinions. But 
to return from this digression : 

" At the time when Mr. Todd urged my entrance into the 
ministry, 1 had began to have pleasing expectations of what 
is called rising in the world ; and my hopes of temporal 
honors began to occupy my thoughts to such a degree that, 
with shame I must confess, the relinquishment of them 
required a painful struggle. But the Lord was pleased in 
his own good time to bring me to a better mind ; and I 
yielded with diffidence and fear to what was by manj 
Ulieved to be my duty." 

Coming from such a man, these last sentences evidently 
embody the substance of what might have ^<*<-n ;i rich chap 



SO MEMOIR OF 

ter in the book of true Christian experience. But, unfortu- 
nately for us, the details of that chapter have been left 
unwritten ; and the only hand that could have given them 
with truth, is now cold and still. Into the depths of that 
struggle with natural ambition, we may never look. Into 
the wrestlings of the divine Spirit with that ardent lover of 
learning and of literary fame, we may never penetrate. Into 
all the feelings which accompanied the bowing of that diffi- 
dent and trembling heart before the high behests of duty, we 
may never enter. What knowledge of the weakness of 
nature, and of the strength of sin, of the power of grace, and 
of the blessedness of giving up all for Christ, was then and 
there acquired, we may never know. Over all these things 
has been left a veil, through which we may, indeed, see 
something of the attitude and action of the man, and of that 
divine agent who was dealing with him, but which doubtless 
covers much that other auto-biographers would have revealed, 
and much that their readers would have been glad to learn. 

" This," the manuscript proceeds, referring to the conflict 
just mentioned, and to its result in following the call of duty, 
" this was in the spring of 1794 ; and I was advised, with no 
other preparation than I then had, to offer myself to the Con- 
vention as a candidate for orders. This Convention met 
early in June. I was received, and soon after commenced 
officiating in a small parish about twelve miles distant from 
my residence. 

" Our present mode of receiving candidates had not then 
been adopted. In Connecticut, as soon as they were received, 
they were permitted to deliver their own compositions — a 
permission which was thought to be necessary in order to 
their obtaining parishes; for candidates were not then 
ordained Deacons till after they had been called to some 
particular charge or cure. The first morning of my officiat- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 37 

iiig as candidate, 1 read a printed sermon; but ever after 
that, I preached my own. 

" In the course of a very few months, I was invited to offi- 
ciate in three different stations. The first was in the count y 
of Litchfield, embracing the care of three parishes, in the 
three towns of Plymouth, Harwinton, and Litchfield ; ? ' (that 
part of the town now called Northfield ;) " the second was 
in the county of New Haven and town of Waterbury ; and 
the third was in the county of Fairfield and town of Read- 
ing. After officiating a few Sundays at each of these stations, 
I was invited by the three parishes, severally, to become 
their minister, and, as I was told, the invitation was, in each 
case, unanimous, there being not a dissenting voice in any 
one of them. This, at the time, seemed to me wonderful ; 
and perhaps some even now will consider it scarce credible. 
But it should be remembered that clergy of our communion 
were then scarce, and the people, consequently, glad to obtain 
almost any decent minister of Christ to labor among them. 

" Waterbury was at that time one of the best parishes in 
the State. The people there were very urgent that I should 
accept their call, and promised that they would, in case of 
my acceptance, immediately commence the building of a new 
church. Their pecuniary offer, too, was the best ; and, had 
I accepted it, I should probably, if living, have remained 
there to this time. 

" Reading also was deemed, by all my friends, preferable 
to the station in Litchfield county ; and yet I accepted this 
last, partly because it was nearer the place where my family 
still resided, and where I had some property which required 
Bay care; and partly because I could, with greater propriety, 
resign that station, should circumstances ever render my 
removal expedient. The three parishes embraced within 
this station formed nearly an equilateral triangle ; each being 
about eight miles distant from the others. The country be- 
tween them was very hilly, and the roads, especially in the 



38 MEMOIR OF 

winter and spring, very bad. The duties^ too, were very 
laborious. Visiting the people, attending funerals, and 
preaching lectures," (by which was understood in the coun- 
try, preaching sermons on week-days in private houses,) 
" besides my Sunday services, kept me a very considerable 
part of my time on horseback. Carriages, in that region, 
were then scarce thought of; and even the small wagon, 
since so common in New England, had not then come into 
use." 

Such was the field selected by Mr. Griswold as the place 
of his first settlement in the work of the ministry ; and such 
were the reasons why he chose it in preference to others, in 
all respects more inviting, so far as his worldly prospects 
were concerned. His salary was £100, lawful currency ; 
practically reduced, $300; or $100 from each of his three 
parishes ; while his labors, with his early and never-remitted 
habits of sermon-writing, must have been as much increased 
as his compensation was diminished, by the choice which he 
made. 

Having been admitted a candidate at the Convention which 
met at New Haven, June 4, 1794, and having officiated in 
that capacity for the term required, one year, he was admit- 
ted to Deacon's orders at the next annual Convention, which 
assembled at Stratford, June 3, 1795. The following is his 
own record of his first ordination : 

" When, according to the rules then in force, I had been a 
candidate a year, and had obtained the title required by hav- 
ing a call to a parish, I was ordained Deacon, with two others, 
at Stratford, in June, 1795." 

His admission to Priest's orders soon followed, at a Con- 
vention which was holden in Plymouth, October 1, 1795. 
The Bishop says : 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 39 

u In October of the same year," (the year of his admission 
to Deacon's orders,) " there was a Convention of the Bishops 
and clergy in one of my parishes — that of St. Matthew's, 
Plymouth ; at which time our new church there was conse- 
crated. Then, too, it was, though I had no thought or expect- 
ation of such a thing, that the clergy proposed to the Bishop 
and to myself, that I should be ordained Priest, which was 
accordingly done." 

Thus, in a year and a half from the time when he first de- 
cided on devoting himself to the work of the ministry, he 
found himself in fall orders, and regularly settled in the 
laborious care of three associated parishes ; being now in the 
thirtieth year of his age, and having spent, from the date of 
his early marriage and his uncle's determination to remove 
to Nova Scotia, ten years of most toilful and most self-deny- 
ing application to his twofold labors as a farmer-student. It 
was the humble life of a humble man ; and yet those ten 
years were probably filled with as much of strenuous effort, 
of invincible perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge amidst 
difficulty, and of the rich and precious results of discipline 
and experience, as were ever crowded into the same number 
of years in the life of any other man. 

"I forbear," he writes, "to mention many things very 
interesting to myself, during my ministry in Connecticut ; 
especially the exercises of my mind, when I was first ordained, 
and the resolutions which I made on entering upon that mo- 
mentous work. Happy would it be, had the rest of my life 
been ' according to that beginning.' " 

With this residue of his life now before me, I cannot re- 
press the utterance of the thought, if, with all its blameless- 
ness and holiness, self-sacrifice and incessant toil, it still fell 
below what he purposed at its beginning, what must have 



40 



MEMOIR OF 



been the loftiness of those opening purposes of ministerial 
devotedness, those early views of the true standard of minis- 
terial fidelity ! As we advance, we shall indeed see reason 
to believe that the resolutions of which he speaks were made 
in a spirit that mingled somewhat of self-reliance w r ith a trust 
in God ; and that, in entering into them, there was still a 
smart conflict of early inclination with a stern and all-con- 
straining sense of duty. Still, evidence will gather around 
us at every step that he never lost sight of the early eleva- 
tion of his views as to what the faithful minister of Christ 
should be; that his whole subsequent course was one of 
ardent prayer and intense effort for more and more undivided 
self-consecration to Christ and his service; and that what 
God first engaged him to attempt under the imperative con- 
straints of duty, He continued to draw forth as the more and 
more freely and gladly bursting homage of his heart, as it 
yielded itself up sweetly to the influence of the all " constrain- 
ing love of Christ." Duty, indeed, he never performed 
grudgingly or unwillingly ; and yet, what was at first chiefly 
duty, became at last emphatically delight. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD, 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM THE BISHOP'S ORDINATION TO THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY IN 

CONNECTICUT. 

We have thus traced the stream of Bishop Griswold's 
early life, from its rise on the banks of the pleasant Farm- 
ington to its entrance among the picturesque hills of Litch- 
field county. We have looked upon him in childhood, 
burning almost from infancy with a consuming love for 
books. We have seen him in youth, passing along a way 
checkered by accidents and vicissitudes of no common cha- 
racter, yet still the ardent scholar even in his field toils — the 
midnight student, who lived but to learn, while others were 
sleeping that they might live. And we have followed him 
into his opening manhood, and seen him encumbered prema- 
turely with the cares and expenses of a family ; tilling his 
little farm for their support, yet adding studies in the law to 
reading in divinity ; and, when too straightened in his means 
to indulge in the small expense of candles, drawing an un- 
bought and an untaxed oil from his own forest-pines to light 
him still at his midnight devotion to his books. Amid all 
these scenes, moreover, we have seen him early designated, 
in the providence of God, as one of his "dear children;' 
vored with an early glimpse into heaven, and then gradually 
trained for the service of Christ upon earth; passing through 
years* of indecision on the great question of his course for 



42 MEMOIR OF 

life ; struggling earnestly in an inner conflict between his 
early ambition of literary fame, and his early sense of obli- 
gation to God and his Church ; and finally yielding to the 
growing power of his convictions of duty, and devoting him- 
self to the work of the ministry with a loftiness of purpose 
and an elevation of views, which made him ever after dis- 
satisfied both with his best attainments in holiness and with 
his best activities in labor, through a long life, filled, as few 
lives were ever filled, with abounding graces of Christian 
character, and with almost superabomiding proofs of Christ- 
ian activity. 

The stream of his history, traced thus far, here enters new 
scenery and flows among new objects — new, however, in such 
a sense as not to be altogether strange, since, through what- 
ever covert windings, and around whatever opposing obsta- 
cles, that stream may have run, towards this point it has been 
steadily tending ; and that, amidst frequently recurring indi- 
cations of the course which it was ultimately to assume. At 
this point of our progress, however, we lose for a time our 
accustomed guide, and shall be compelled, for some distance, 
to follow our subject as best we may, with scarce a word of 
direction from the autobiography. The few recollections 
which I have been able to glean from the memories of those 
aged parishioners who still survive him among the scenes of 
his earliest ministry, will furnish almost the only light that 
can now be shed on this portion of his life. His ministry in 
Litchfield county was as humble as it was laborious ; but it 
left behind a gracious sweet-savor which is tasted with satis- 
faction in the remembrances yet living among the hills. His 
life of toil and lowliness there, was, to the world, as unnoticed 
and unknown as the beautiful stream which flowed through 
his parishes — seldom seen save by those who drew near, and 
who, from the brow of the sudden eminences which swelled 
above it, looked down into the deep and narrow vale along 
the bottom of which it held its way. As I passed over the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 43 

field of his first labors, stood where he so often stood, and 
listened to what almost seemed the living echoes of his voice, 
in the accounts given me both of his teaching and of his toils, 
I could not help thinking of Pastor Oberlin in the Ban de la 
Roche, and of Felix Neff among the high Alps ; not because 
nature here assumes the same sterile, rugged, and awful 
forms which she wears there; for the hills of Litchfield 
county generally swell into smooth and broad eminences, 
rather than into shaggy and towering heights, and are made 
vocal with the hum of most industrious life, as it covers, 
them with traces of well-paid cultivation ; nor because man 
here exists in the same rude and untaught state which marks 
his condition there, for this, like every other part of Connec- 
ticut, is a region of moral cultivation and of intellectual 
light; but because here, as there, the scene is withdrawn 
from the noise and bustle of the great tumultuous world ; 
because here, as there, all is simple, inartificial, rural life ; 
but, most of all, because here, as there, was a man giving up 
every thing for his Master ; a man fired, natively, with all 
the ardors of the poet, the scholar, and the man of science, 
yet making himself* one with his people in all the simplicity, 
toilfulness, and humble fare to which they were accustomed ; 
a man seeking singly the good of all, and receiving less than 
love and reverence from none. 

Of the order and succession of events during his ministry 
in Litchfield county, it has, of course, been impossible to dis- 
cover a trace. Detached incidents and general views are all 
that could be recovered. These, however, show with suffi- 
cient distinctness, his character, his labors, and the estimation 
in which he was held. It is a matter of little importance 
into what order events fall, when, as in the case of most 
country clergymen, those events arc so generally mono- 
tonous. 

When he first took charge of his three parishes, his time 
was not equally divided between them. One half was given 



44 MEMOIR OF 

to St. Mattjiaw's Church, East Plymouth, and one quarter 
each to Trinity Church, Northfield, and St. Mark's, Harwin- 
ton. For more than five years after his settlement, his resi- 
dence was in the first-named parish, in the house of Mr. 

C G , who being at that time unmarried, and having 

just built himself a small but comfortable house, rented it to 
the new pastor, and lived in his family as a boarder. From 
him I received some of the incidents, and many of the gene- 
ral views, which I am about to record. 

In the first week of November, 1800, Mr. Griswold re- 
moved with his family from Plymouth to Harwinton, and 
took possession of a parsonage and small glebe of fourteen 
acres, which had been purchased for him, and on which he 
continued to reside till his final removal from Connecticut ; 
henceforth dividing his time equally between the three 
parishes. 

Just before his ordination and settlement, the Rev. Mr 

C , Congregational minister in Northfield, offered to 

preach one-third of the time for the Episcopalians in that 
parish, confining himself in worship to the use of the Prayer- 
book, evidently hoping thereby to consolidate the whole 
population into his own society. His offer was accepted, 
and while he continued to preach to them, he was regularly 
paid for his services. Meanwhile, however, his Episcopal 
hearers were quietly proceeding to finish the new church 
which they had begun to build, and as soon as it was com- 
plete, Mr. Griswold took possession and opened it for such 
as were disposed to attend his ministry. The result was 
that all the Episcopalians who had accepted the offer of Mr. 

C flocked at once to their own house and their own 

Pastor ; and so acceptable were his ministrations that some 
even of the Congregationalists would stray away, as often as 
they dared, from their own minister to hear the new Episco- 
pal clergyman. Their tendency to this became at length so 
manifest, that Mr. C felt obliged to admonish his people 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 45 

of their duty to himself; remarking somewhat playfully, as 
he addressed them on the subject — "It is customary, my 
friends, for the minister to be where his people are ; and as 
you seem so much inclined to go' and hear Mr. Griswold, I 
have some thoughts, unless you mend your ways, of going 
to Church too." 

Among those of Mr. C 's congregation who were thus 

in the habit of frequently attending the Episcopal church. 
was his own wife. She had been educated an Episcopalian. 
and was. indeed, cousin to my informant, a leading man. at 
that time, in this part of Mr. Griswold's cure. Her old 
feelings of attachment to the Church being revived, she per- 
sisted in frequently attending its services, notwithstanding 
her husband's remonstrances as often as she did so. Mr. 

C was a regularly educated man ; and thinking, perhaps, 

to influence his wife through her pride, he asked her one 
day — " My dear, pray tell me why it is that you go so fre- 
quently to hear that Simsbury shoemaker V' She replied. 
" Shoemaker or not. he is a good preacher, husband ; and if 
you could preach as well, I should not like you the less, 
though you were a Shoemaker indeed." 

Mr. A B , the gentleman above alluded to as my 

informant, remarked that, during Mr. Griswold's ministry in 
this parish, almost every new inhabitant that removed into 
Xorthfleld, to whatever denomination he had previously be- 
attached himself to the Episcopal Church, so accept- 
able was Mr. Griswold's preaching, and so decided the 
influence which he acquired over the public mind. His 
church became full ; not a sitting was left unoccupied ; and 
this parish rose at once into a most flourishing condition, 
which it continued to enjoy till the period of his removal. 

Through life, Bi<h«»p Griswold was remarkable for his 
abstinence from all participation in the political eontr 
of the. day. Though lie had his pre!- - and his princi- 

- on this - II as on others, yet it i- ! 



46 MEMOIR OF 

few were certain to which side he leaned. During the period 
of his early ministry, political excitement, it is well known, 
ran frightfully high throughout the country ; and as it was 
then very common for ministers of the gospel to take an 
open part, and even to become leaders in politics, many of 
his parishioners became desirous of knowing to which party 
he belonged. As yet they had been utterly unable to ascer- 
tain. At length, so high did the desire or curiosity run, that 
one of them asserted his ability and avowed his determina- 
tion to bring their minister to an open expression of his 
opinions. The time which he chose for his experiment was 
that of their annual parish " settlement," as it was called ; 
that is, the clay fixed for the annual balance of accounts be- 
tween the people and their pastor. On this occasion, the 
settlement took place in the principal " store" of the town, 
and after the conclusion of business to the mutual satisfaction 
of the parties concerned, the inquisitor entered on his opera- 
tions, and began to sound his minister's politics by that pro- 
cess of indirect remark and leading question in which the 
shrewd Connecticut man has ever shown himself so much at 
home. His minister, however, having as much skill in bear- 
ing an examination as he had in pressing it, took no notice 
of what he said, till, wearied with the indirect method, he at 
last threw himself upon the direct, and asked Mr. Griswold 
plainly " to which side in politics he belonged ?" " My king- 
dom is not of this world" was his mild, but only reply ; and 
so his questioner remained as wise as when he began his 
questioning. 

His early preaching, like that which generally prevailed 
in our Church at that time, was rather moral than evangeli- 
cal ; that is, devoted more to the illustration and enforcement 
of the moral precepts and virtues of Christianity, than to the 
development and application of the spiritual truths and doc- 
trines of the gospel. He was, indeed, neither ignorant nor 
regardless of the latter; still, his religious views had not 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 47 

then so clearly unfolded themselves as to bring these latter 
out into unconcealable prominence, and make them seen 
every where, as the all-pervading, vital soul of the former. 
He never seems, like Chalmers in his early ministry, to have 
been opposed to the humbling doctrines of the cross, and to 
have designedly and deliberately placed his dependence for 
making men better on the inculcation of mere morality ; but, 
like many other good men before him in the English and 
American Episcopal Churches, his whole Body of Divinity 
had been cast rather into that shape which gave the morality 
of the gospel chief prominence, with a sort of occasional 
pointing inwards, or downwards, to something spiritual as 
its source or its foundation, than into that order which shows 
the spiritual truths and doctrines of the cross as the very 
fountain-head of pure and living morality, pouring forth 
incessant streams of virtue and godliness over all the life, and 
as that divinely laid foundation in the soul, which alone can 
support a solid and an unfailing fabric of moral virtues in the 
character. In short, he, at that time, rather overlooked than 
disliked what are termed "the doctrines of grace;" he 
preached what was practical, though without prejudice 
against what was spiritual ; and he entered the pulpit con- 
troversies of the day against Calvinism, though without the 
slightest feeling of dislike for the gospel of the Calvinists. 

Even in his moral preaching, however, there was a point, 
a plainness, and a sort of quickening vitality, which made 
his discourses very different from those of multitudes whose 
skill lay chiefly in turning the living moralities of heaven 
into little better than the dull prose of our common life. 

As one of the many illustrations of this remark which 
might still be gathered from the field of his early labors, ^1 p. 

N S , the son of an aged widow of whom I inquired, 

and at whose house in Northfield Mr. Griswold used to 
spend, in study and sermon-writing, many of those 

which prevented his return to his family in Plymouth, 



48 



MEMOIR OF 



tells of an incident which occurred when he was but a boy. 
Mr. Griswold was preaching against the vice of profane 

swearing. But N , as is apt to be the case with most 

boys, listened carelessly, and therefore caught but little that 
the minister said, till something peculiar in what he was 
uttering arrested his attention, w T hen the following sentence 
fell on his ear : " Other vices have their temptations, some 
of them very strong ones ; so that they w^ho indulge in them 
can at least show something of immediate pleasure, even 
though it have been purchased by the loss of present virtue, 
and at the hazard of future damnation. But the profane 
swearer sins without any inducement ; he bites at the devil's 
bare hook, and goes to hell as a fool caught in his own folly." 

This, said Mr. S , fixed my thoughts, and so impressed 

my mind that, to this day, I never hear a profane swearer 
without thinking to myself, " There goes a fool, biting at the 
devil's bare hook !" 

Mr. Griswold was always characterized by a power of 
keen but quiet satire ; a faculty of reproving vice, error, and 
improprieties, especially from the pulpit, in such a distinct 
yet delicate way that the persons, or class of persons intend- 
ed, could never mistake his meaning, nor avoid feeling his 
point, while at the same time it was impossible to take any 
offence, or to shoiu feeling otherwise than by amendment. 
One of his aged and very respectable parishioners in Har- 

winton tells of a Mr. A , a quaint wit, who thus describes 

the power now mentioned : " Why," said he, " Mr. Gris- 
wold's tongue is like the scimitar of the Turk — he can cut a 
man's head off without his knowing it;" by which he meant, 
not that the reproofs uttered w r ere unfelt, but that the per- 
sons reproved found themselves, in a sort of sense, convicted 
and decapitated, without the power, even if they had the 
wish, to open their mouths in answer. 

That there was no bitterness in his reproofs, whatever of 
keenness they may have carried, may be known from the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 49 

fact that there was none in his temper. Upon a long ac- 
quaintance, children are perhaps the most sure to detect the 
true temper of a man. Live long with children, and make 
them love you if you can, provided your tempers are natu- 
rally severe and bitter. Their love is a keen instinct, which 
fixes on nothing but what is, in some good measure, as sweet, 
as gentle, and as lovely as their own childish innocence. 
Judged by this test, Mr. Griswold's natural tempers appear 
in the most amiable light. He was the idol of all the little 
children of his parishes. Said Mrs. A C , an un- 
commonly intelligent woman for the wife of a country farmer, 
" The children of his cure were like those described by Gold- 
smith, in his portrait of 4 the Village Pastor :' 

" The service past, around the pious man, 
"With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran ; 
Even children followed, with endearing wile, 
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile." 

" I am," she continued, " like Moses, not ready of speech. I 
have a heart to feel, but not a tongue to express what I fee\^ 
for that good man." u He was," said her husband, in his 
plain, honest way, "an uncommonly perfect man. You 
could find no fault with him, no way." 

His humility was an early as well as late grace of his cha- 
racter, and it was peculiarly manifest in the fact that severe 
and unjust judgments of him from others never had power 
to provoke him to severity and injustice in return. Mrs. 

C tells of a Congregationalist, who was somewhat rude 

of speech, and. withal strongly prejudiced against the Episco- 
pg] Church, and who one day spoke disparagingly of Mr. 
Griswold in the presence of some of his parishioners, saying, 
among other things, " He is no more fit to preach the gospel 
than my horse." Upon being told of the remark, lie took it 
very meekly, merely replying, " Well, I have often myself 

suspected that I was hardJy fit to be a minister of Christ." 

3 



50 MEMOIR OF 

Whenever drawn, as he used sometimes to be, into per- 
sonal discussion with others, he was not prone to long and 
violent argumentation. His parishioners early remarked in 
him a singular power of putting an end to the controversy, 
whatever it happened to be, by a few sentences, often by a 
single sentence, which so gathered up the subject, and put it 
in such a shape, or in such a light, as to leave little or nothing 
further to be said. 

The deepest impression on their minds, however, was that 
made by his heavenly spirit and example. The following 
incident still remains fresh in the memory of the good peo- 
ple of Harwinton as something which assorted well with 
their conceptions of the man : 

On a beautiful summer Sunday, as Mr. Griswold was 
leading the worship of his congregation in Harwinton, the 
windows of the church being open for the purpose of ventila- 
tion, a dove was observed to fly in at the window near the 
desk, and hovering a moment over the chancel, to alight fear- 
lessly on the open Prayer-book. The pastor, without paus- 
ing in his devotions, gently raised his hand, and softly brushed 
the bird away. Nothing daunted by this gentleness, how- 
ever, it made a few circlings round the church on its rustling 
wings, and then settling down with its own peculiar hovering 
motion, fairly alighted on the good man's head. With no 
pause in the worship, the same gentle hand was again raised, 
and again softly brushed the bird away. This time, it exhi- 
bited no more signs of fear than before ; but, after a few 
more flutterings on the wing, quietly flew out at the window 
by which it entered. 

The good people of the parish often and long talked of this 
incident, and were fond of regarding it as almost divinely 
significant of the character of the quiet and Spirit-taught man 
of prayer. 

The rigid self-denial to which his choice of a parish had 
subjected him, may be seen from the statement of the gen- 



BISHOP GKISWOLD. 51 

tleman already referred to as having lived for five years in 
his pastor's family. " I have," said he, " labored for many 
of the neighboring farmers, as well as for others who were 
not farmers, and have partaken at their board as one of the 
household ; but I have never lived with any family in which 
the daily, habitual fare was so poor and coarse as that on 
Mr. Griswold's table." So largely was he obliged to deny 
himself and his household in preaching the gospel among the 
retired hills of Connecticut. 

And yet, even under these circumstances, he w r as remark- 
able among his parishioners for his observance of the apos- 
tolic injunction to be "given to hospitality." No matter 
who was cast upon him, he was welcome to such as his 

entertainer had to give. Said Mr. G , " I have seen our 

minister, when a negro asked charity, after ordering the table 
set with such cheer as was at command, though it was not 
his usual meal-hour, sit down and partake with him, lest the 
poor African should feel himself slighted." 

A part of his support here, as well as after his marriage 
in Simsbury, was earned by actual labor on the farm. Mr. 

G remarked, " The parson and myself have often worked 

out together as hired men, in harvest time, at 75 cents per 
day. He was a hard worker — among the best day -laborers 
in town ; and one of his day's-works was worth as much as 
that of two common men." 

In truth, his whole life in Litchfield county was one of 
severe and varied labor, and often one of very trying 
exposure. 

On one occasion, he was engaged to preach a " lecture," as 
it was called, about five miles from his home in East Ply- 
mouth. Before he set off, a Congregational neighbor came 
and asked the loan of his horse, as he had a few miles to ride. 
Be replied, "1 was intending to ride him myself to-day, but 
if you are anxious for him I suppose I can walk." Accord- 



52 MEMOIR OF 

ingly, the horse was loaned, and the obliging minister had 
the comfort of making his excursion on foot. 

In winter the hills in this part of Connecticut are uncom- 
monly bleak — -just high enough to take the fierce sweep of 
the winds, yet not high enough to turn the roads from their 
summits into the sheltered vallies between them. It hap. 
pened, one Sunday morning during his residence in East 
Plymouth, that the weather was extremely cold and stormy ; 
and as it was his duty, in regular course, to preach on that 
day in his Harwinton church, he rose before his family were 
awake, saddled his horse, and departed without breaking his 
fast, that he might be sure of arriving in time for service. 
The storm, however, proved so terrible, and the snow drifted 
so fast and so deep, that he was out for hours, battling with 
the stern tempest, and did not reach Harwinton till noon. 
His parishioners had then closed their morning service with 
lay-reading. After warming himself a few moments, there- 
fore, he reassembled them in church, gave them the after- 
noon service and sermon, and then, desirous of relieving the 
anxiety of his family on his account, turned his horse's head 
immediately for Plymouth. He found the horrors of the 
way, however, so increased, that it was midnight before he 
reached home ; and as his family on his arrival were quietly 
asleep in their beds, he would not disturb them, but after 
rewarding his faithful steed for his duty, betook himself to 
rest supperless ; thus, in fact, fasting through his severe 
fatigues and exposures from Saturday night till Monday 
morning. 

The following little incident well illustrates the habitual 
temper in which he met and endured the privations of his 
early life. In the neighboring gardens a culinary vegetable 
was much cultivated, which the country people called " pa- 
tience," and which was used as a substitute for spinach. " I 
do wish, brother," said his sister, one day, " that we had some 
patience planted in our garden." " Wouldn't it do just as 



BISHOP GRI.SWOLD. 53 

well, sister," he replied, " if we had a little more of it grow- 
ing in our house P 

The only incident which he has recorded in his auto-bio- 
graphy of this his early ministry, is the following : 

" As we advance in life, it is no small comfort," he writes, 
" to look back upon any thing like good which we may have 
done in the world. Fondness of this sort is my only apology 
for recording an occurrence which then filled my heart with 
much thankfulness to God. 

" For more than five of the first years of my ministry, I 
resided in Plymouth. About the first of March, during one 
of those years, when the snow was rapidly melting away, 
and when the streams were of course much swollen, a num- 
ber of boys were playing upon a bridge which was built 
over a small river, then increased to a flood. One of them, 
a fine lad of nine or ten years, fell by accident from the 
bridge into the midst of the angry torrent. There was not 
within a fourth of a mile from the place a single man' with 
the exception of myself, and I, very providently, happened 
to be engaged in my school-room, about sixty rods distant. 
One of the other boys instantly ran and informed me of the 
accident. There was not a moment for deliberation. A few 
rods below the bridge the river entered a deep mill-pond. 
As fast as possible, I ran to the brink of the stream, as fiir 
down as I supposed he might have floated. Upon reaching 
it, he was seen near the surface, and one minute more would 
have carried him out into the pond. Without slacking my 
pace, and trusting to my skill in swimming, I rushed into the 
swollen water, with my winter clothing on, and succeeded in 
rescuing him from the flood, and in restoring him to life. 
I [ad I done less he must inevitably have been drowned. As 
it was, I had great cause for thankfulness, not only for being 
the instrument of saving from a watery grave one who is 
probably still alive, but also for my own escape from being 



54 MEMOIR OF 

drowned, it being dangerous to enter swiftly running water 
with such heavy clothing as I then wore. The parents knew 
nothing of what had happened till I carried their child to 
their dwelling. It was a lonely place, where I was then 
teaching a district school ; and it so happened, or rather was 
so ordered, that, instead of going home for my dinner on 
that particular day, I had determined to spend the intermis- 
sion in the school-house, and was engaged, when the accident 
occurred, in writing my sermon for the following Sunday. 
During the whole of my life, I have been constrained to be 
economical of my time ; few, probably, of my age, have 
spent less in amusement and relaxation." 

It may be asked whether, at this period of his life, Mr. 
Griswold exhibited in his preaching* any foretokens of the 
eminence to which he subsequently rose in the Church? 
The answers which I received to this inquiry were, that in 
general he was not what would be called a popular preacher. 
All loved his sermons, many of which were of their kind 
exceedingly effective, and some of his more discerning 
hearers saw clearly that there was that in him and in his 
discourses which is not found in ordinary men — a soundness 
of judgment, a clearness of thought, a richness of matter, 
and an excellence of style, which made them think he would 
not end his days in Litchfield County. The following anec- 
dote is illustrative of the general estimate in which he was 
held. 

His predecessor in the parish was one day riding through 
Harwinton, and seeing one of his former parishioners at 
work hard by in the field, he reined his horse to the fence 
and inquired, " Well, neighbor A., how do you like your 
new minister V " Right well," was the reply ; " excellently 
well." "A pretty good sort of a team-horse, but not much 
of a nag, I suppose ?" continued his inquirer. " Why, no, 
not much, perhaps. To tell you the truth, parson, we are 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 55 

quite content. We have tried one nag, and he threw us. 
We are very glad to get something a little more steady." 

While in charge of his parishes here, beside his preaching 
on Sundays and his frequent " lectures" in private families, 
Mr. Griswold used occasionally to ride northward across 
the line of the State to where the hills rise into the Hoosack 
range in Massachusetts, for the purpose of preaching to a 
few Episcopalians in the hill-town of Blanford, at that time 
a neglected place, too much overrun with vice and its com- 
panion, unbelief. His services were held in a school-room ; 
and occasionally some of the inhabitants, who were not Epis 
copalians, would drop in to hear what the minister had to 
say. On one occasion, when they saw him open his book 
and begin to read the service, they were so shocked at the 
idea that the man had not religion enough to pray without a 
book that they immediately rose and left the room. Dis- 
cussing the matter among themselves afterward, one of 
their number remarked, " He believed the Episcopal Church 
claimed the apostolic power of forgiving sins. He supposed, 
therefore, Mr. Griswold had come up to pardon the sins of 
the Blanford people." " No," said a bystander, who had 
more wit as well as better information than his neighbor, 
" that is not the object of his visit. Mr. Griswold lays no 
claim to the apostolic power of forgiving sins. I understand, 
however, there is another of the apostolic powers of a still 
more remarkable character which he exercises, and that with 
considerable effect." "And pray what may that be ?" 
inquired the former speaker. " The power of casting out 
devils" replied the latter. 

On a general view of the first ten years of his ministry, 
Mr. Griswold is found to have acted in various capacities ; 
as a teacher of the district-school in winter, as a day-laborer 
among his parishioners in summer, and as a sharer in all the 
lowly occupations and cares of a country life among the 
retired hills of Connecticut, as well as in the proper duties 



56 MEMOIR OF 

of his office as a Christian teacher and spiritual pastor to his 
flock. He shunned nothing, in truth, that could bring him 
into most familiar and unguarded intercourse with his peo- 
ple. As an instance of not unfrequent occurrence, riding 
one day along the road he passed the garden of one of 
his parishioners, who was a justice of the peace. The 
" 'Squire" was preparing to remove a rock or large stone 
from his garden grounds. The earth had been dug from 
around it, and 'Squire W. and his men were lifting hard, but 
in vain, to remove it. Seeing this Mr. Griswold sprang 
from his horse, leaped the garden fence, and though in his 
best dress seized the fresh-earthed stone, and with an exer- 
tion of his almost herculean strength helped them heave it 
from its bed. 

Such were his habits of intercourse with his flock in every 
thing wherein he could be of service to them. And yet, m 
all his familiarity with them in the harvest-field, by the way- 
side, in his fishing excursions by night, in his school-disci- 
pline of the urchins committed to his care, in all his unbend- 
ings and minglings with his people, he never forgot his 
character as a minister of Christ ; was never off his guard ; 
never said or did on week-days what could mar his proper 
influence on the Sabbath ; always had his speech seasoned 
with gracious salt; rebuked vice and levity in his own 
peculiar quiet but keen way ; if others ventured into con- 
versation in his presence, of which he could not approve or 
partake, immediately reproved it by his silence, or by some 
word which restored the train of remark to its proper de- 
cency or gravity ; and thus, without ever giving offence or 
compromising his own character, passed through all those 
scenes of familiar intercourse in such a way that when he 
entered the house of God and spake as an ambassador for 
Christ, there was nothing to detract from the power of his 
speech or to counteract the influence of his wise instruc- 
tions. All felt him to be a true man of God, meaning what 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 57 

he said, and enforcing by his daily example the precious 
truths which it was his wont to inculcate. 

All told in general the same story of the man ; all seemed 
to have formed the same estimate of his character ; the tes- 
timony of all, in short, might well be summed up in the 
expressive brevity of Mr. A. C, of Harwinton : " He was 
an uncommonly perfect man. You could find no fault with 
him no way." 

In speaking of the close of his ministry here, the Bishop 
says in his auto-biography : 

" No years of my life have been more happy than the ten 
which I passed in those three parishes. The people were 
mostly religious, and all comparatively free from vice. To 
me and mine they were exceedingly kind. With no one 
had I ever any mamier of contention or unkind dispute, nor 
did I learn that any one was ever opposed to me. My 
parishes all gradually increased. And when I left them I 
had about 220 communicants, the greater part of whom had 
first come to the Lord's table under my ministry. 

" This increase will appear the more remarkable when it 
is considered that I could officiate in each parish but one 
third of the time. Could I have spent the whole time in 
any one of them, I have no doubt but the increase of that 
one would have been much greater. Men who have fami- 
lies leave with reluctance a place of worship where they 
enjoy weekly the ministration of the Gospel, for another 
where the services are but once in two or three weeks. The 
scarcity of our clergy at that time made it in many cases 
necessary that one should have charge of two or more 
parishes. As a consequence, the parishes increased in 
her more rapidly than in size ; more rapidly than what. 
in the same state, has been the fact since the clergy have 
become more numerous, and each parish more easily sup- 
plied with the undivided labors of its minister. Since I 

3* 



58 MEMOIR OF 

left Connecticut the number both of ministers and of other 
members of the Church in that State has increased much 
more than the number of the parishes." 

In 1803 he visited Bristol, Khode-Island, chiefly with a 
view to relaxation, and to see a country which he had never 
visited. Of this visit he takes the following notes : 

" In 1803 I was induced, in compliance with a pressing 
invitation and in company with a friend, to visit Bristol, 
Ehode-Island. I passed a fortnight there, preached two 
Sundays, and — the parish being vacant — was pressingly 
requested to take charge of it. But the prospect of increased 
usefulness, or of any other advantage, did not appear to be 
such as to justify the change, or to render my removal from 
my Litchfield parishes expedient. I therefore declined the 
offer. Beside writing to me, they sent in the following 
autumn a man all the way to Harwinton, where I resided, 
who urged me very much and for several reasons to accept 
their invitation. Still it did not appear that I was bound 
by either duty or interest to comply with their request. My 
desire, and indeed my intention, had for some time been to 
remove further to the south. The State of Pennsylvania 
was my choice. I was well aware that when the infirmities 
of age should come upon me I should not be able to endure 
the labors incident to the station which I then held. I felt 
able, however, to continue them a while longer." 

But although Mr. Griswold was under written contract 
with the parish at Harwinton, and though he twice refused 
the call of the parish in Bristol, yet it seems his expecta- 
tions of remaining for some time longer in the place of his 
early settlement were soon again to be disturbed. Befer- 
ring to his last refusal of the invitation which he had 
received, he says : 

" I then supposed that I should hear no more from Bristol. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD, 59 

But about the middle of the following winter, to my surprise 
one of their most respectable parishioners, Ifc. William 
Pearse, a Warden of the Church, appeared at my house 
with still more pressing solicitations that I would take the 
charge of that destitute parish, urging many reasons why 
it was my duty to consent to the change. This affected me 
very seriously, and there seemed to be in it a call of Divine 
Providence. To leave a people who had been so uniformly- 
kind to me, and all of whom, without exceptions, I had 
son to believe would be grieved at my leaving them, 
excited in my mind a painful struggle which they only who 
have been called to the like trial can realize. It is sufficient 
to say. that with fear and trembling I gave my consent ; 
and in May. 1804, one year after my first visit there, I was 
in Bristol with my family. Bishop Jarvis had given his 
consent that I should spend a few years there, though at the 
same time expressing a wish that I should, after that, return 
to his diocese.'* 

In speaking for the first time of the invitation to Bristol, 
it will be remembered that Mr. Griswold assigned as a rea- 
son for declining it, that neither duty nor interest bound him 
to comply with the request. Upon reading such a remark, 
the question would naturally arise in some minds, Was Mr. 
Griswold ever a man who could be influenced to so serious 
a si p as that of a removal from one parish to another l>y 
any consideration of interest? To such a question, my 
er would be a decided negative. Considerations of 
interest never weighed on his mind, unless when they came 
in such a shape as to be identical with considerations of 
duty. His whole life was a demonstration of this truth. 
What his whole reason for removal was, is a secret locked 
him in the slumbers of the grave. A part of it, how- 
ever, and that part which no doubt satisfied his people of 
the propriety of his removal, I was able to recover with a 
fying degree of certainty. 



60 MEMOIR OF 

Mr. Griswold having become responsible for one third 
part of the £500 which were paid for the glebe and parson, 
age in Harwinton, and probably after the period of his first 
visit to Bristol, his brother Roger had conceived a fine 
scheme for improving the paternal estate at Simsbury, by 
the building at the bend of the Farmington River of what 
he termed " The Rainbow Mills." Unexpected disasters 
disappointed his hopes, and involved the yet undivided 
family estate. These embarrassments, added to the obliga- 
tions which he had incurred in the purchase of the Harwin- 
ton glebe, made it difficult, if not impossible, to meet his 
engagements, and yet continue to support his family on the 
snic^l salary of $300 which he received from his Litchfield 
parishes ; while the idea of living in debt was one from 
which his whole nature shrank as by the force of an irresist- 
ible instinct. To live on $300 a year, and provide for the 
education of a growing family by turning fisherman at 
night, day-laborer in summer, and district schoolmaster in 
winter — this he could easily do, with the feeling that he 
was thereby keeping himself free from debt. But to do all 
this, and yet feel that the burdens of debt were on him, 
this every one who has known him well is at once prepared 
to say was what he never could endure. 

It appears evidently to have been under these circum- 
stances that he felt it to be his duty to accept the thrice 
proffered call to Bristol. These circumstances, we may well 
believe, made the third repetition of that call, at a time 
when he supposed he had dismissed the subject for ever, a 
matter of such " surprise" to him that he even saw in it the 
leadings of a " Divine Providence." The " painful conflict" 
which arose in his mind while deciding the question of his 
removal was doubtless aggravated by the fear lest his be- 
loved parishioners should think him regardless of the obli- 
gations of his written contract. This fear, however, was 
dissipated before he actually left them. By a "vote" of the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 01 

parish, placed on record, he was "released" from his con- 
tract ; the glebe-engagement was also taken off from his 
hands, and the property afterward re-sold by the parish ; 
and he left his people amidst expressions of their unfeigned 
regrets, and of their undissembled affection. These expres- 
sions, though they allayed the 4; fear and trembling 7 ' with 
which he finally consented to accept the call from Bristol, 
yet doubtless increased in one sense the touching power of 
the affliction which he felt in separating from those to whom 
he had given his first ministerial labors and his first pastoral 
love. 

It may, perhaps, add to the interest of the foregoing state- 
ment, to remark that, at the time of his departure from Har- 
winton, that parish owed him about 8150 — equal to one and 
a half year's salary from that part of his charge. In conse- 
quence of the loose and unsettled state into which the parish 
for once allowed their accounts to fall, his parishioners appear 
not to have been aware of their indebtedness ; and he left 
them without even reminding them of it. Nor is it probable 
that he ever intended to bring it to their memory. I have a 
letter before me from a member of the parish, dated in 1812, 
eight years after his removal, which shows that their indebt- 
edness to him had but just then been discovered by them- 
selves, in consequence of the appointment of a committee to 
investigate the state of their pecuniary affairs. Even this 
committee could discover only the fact of their indebted' 
For it- amount one of its number wrote to him, and the letter 
which he wrote is the one now in my hand. It is only neces- 
sary to add that the amount, when ascertained, was paid, and 
that the fact of its payment, in connection with the manner 
in which it was discovered, testifies as strong!}" to the honesty 
and faithful affection of his Ilarwinton people as it does t<> 
own characteristic adherence to the principle which, on 
subject, he had adopted, of always leaving his pecuniary 
support a matter entirely voluntary with hi- parishiom 



62 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM THE BISHOP'S SETTLEMENT IN BRISTOL TO HIS CONSECRATION. 

When, at midwinter of 1804, William Pearse, of Bristol, 
visited Mr. Griswold in Harwinton, he spent some little 
time in inquiries among the parishioners, for the purpose of 
learning, from their free remarks, the true character of their 
minister. The result was that, though they soon began to 
suspect his object, they yet gave their testimony with one 
voice, the substance of which was Allen Cook's sententious 
judgment: "He was an uncommonly perfect man; you 
could find no fault with him, no way." 

His acceptance of the invitation having been obtained, as 
soon as the weather became settled in the spring, prepara- 
tions were made for his removal. Mr. John De Wolf, for 
the sake of distinction from others called " North-west John," 
from a voyage which he had made round the north-west coast 
of the Continent, fitted out one of his coasting vessels, with 
which, passing down Narragansett Bay, he proceeded by 
Long Island Sound and Connecticut River to Hartford, the 
nearest point of approach to Harwinton. Thence, with hired 
teams, he advanced upwards of twenty miles, over the hills 
and vallies of Connecticut, to the point of his destination. 
But what was his surprise at finding the object of his expedi- 
tion an ecclesiastical Cincinnatus at his plough — a farmer in 
the field, under a broad-brimmed hat, and in patched short- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 63 

clothes, coarse stockings, and heavy shoes ! This was the 
last day of Mr. Griswold's agricultural life. His field dress 
was soon doffed, and in exchange, his clerical habit assumed — 
equally at home in either, and to each an equal ornament ; 
his person ever lofty, erect, and dignified, his dark eye beam- 
ing with cheerfulness and intelligence, and his whole demeanor 
characteristic of a sober, serious man of God. The expedi- 
tion closed happily, and ere summer had set in, Mr. Griswold 
and his family were quietly settled in his new parish. 

For more than a quarter of a century, Bristol became his 
chosen and his dearest home, the place where his Christian 
and ministerial character ripened into full development ; the 
field of his best and most successful labors in the vineyard 
of his Master ; and, it may be added, as what bound him to 
it with increased tenderness of affection, the scene of his most 
painfully disciplinary afflictions, and the burial-place of 
almost the whole of a large family. 

The parish, though small, was yet endowed with an income 
of S600 per annum, besides a trust fund for the support of a 
Charity School. The annual income of the parish constituted 
the only salary of its rector. Although inadequate to the 
support of a family in a place where the expenses of living 
were necessarily large, yet the parish made no voluntary 
addition to it ; and Mr. Griswold was therefore obliged to 
add to the duties of his rectorship those of a select school. 

At the present point in the life of Bishop Griswold, his 
auto-biography again comes in as a more frequent guide. I 
present here his first notice of the parish in Bristol : 

"I found in this place a parish of about twenty-five fami- 
lies decidedly attached to the Church, and about the same 
number of communicants. Some others had occasionally 
attended worship there. The congregation, however, so 
rapidly increased that, in a few years, the church m as not 
large enough for their accommodation. Twenty-four feet 



64 MEMOIR OF 

were added to the length of the house ; and the new pews 
sold readily, and at such prices that the parish gained several 
hundred dollars to its fund, beyond the cost of the addition." 

The prosperity of the parish indicated in this note conti- 
nued, without interruption, during his rectorship, though it 
was more marked at some periods than at others. On this 
subject, however, he says but little in the sketch of his own 
life. lie recurs to it once or twice, at a subsequent date, as 
we shall see ; but for the present, his mind seems inclined to 
indulge in retrospect and in general views. He evidently 
regards his entrance on the duties of this parish as a sort of 
central point in his life, upon which the influences of the past 
converge, and from which influences into the future radiate ; 
and therefore, with a mere notice of his settlement here and 
its more immediate results, he takes his stand on this as a 
point of observation ; throws his view behind him, around 
him, and before ; glances occasionally at incidents, but dwells 
mostly on the feelings, motives, and principles by which he 
had been governed ; and thus, in his own modest way, shows 
himself without aiming at self-display, and holds up a model 
of character before his clergy without any assumption of mere 
official superiority. 

With these preparatory remarks, let us now follow, for a 
while, his own words, and walk by the light which he sheds 
around himself. 

" Soon after engaging in the duties of the pastoral care, I 
found that my hopes of leisure for much reading were not to 
be realized without a neglect of the very duties to which I 
was pledged. It was with too much regret, and with too 
little resignation and trust in God, that I was, by a simple 
sense of duty, constrained to relinquish some studies in which 
I had very much delighted, especially music and mathema- 
tics, natural philosophy and chemistry. 

" Dr. Johnson mentions it as a sad reflection, that he knew 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. (]5 

almost as much at eighteen as he did at fifty-four. In the 
later years of my life, my mind has been not a little saddened 
by a like reflection. So very much of my time has been 
occupied in preparing sermons in great numbers for the pul- 
pit, and in the many other duties of the clerical office, that 
since my first ordination, I haye scarcely been able to acquire 
literary, especially classical knowledge, so fast as I haye for- 
gotten it. Experience and observation have been my best 
human teachers. By them I have learned to correct early 
prejudices and errors, and have acquired knowledge of much 
use in my ministry. 

M When young, my natural pride and ambition, not sub- 
dued as they should have been, withstood my choosing the 
clerical profession. It appeared to me a relinquishment of 
all hopes of distinction in this present life. I did not then 
duly consider that, in my baptism and confirmation, I had 
already, in profession, renounced the world. And yet, even 
from a child, I had a deeper sense than perhaps is common, 
of propriety or consistency of conduct, and often wondered 
much that many professing Christians, and especially clergy- 
men, should be so conformed to the wisdom and customs, 
'the pomps and vanities, of the world.' When I began to 
attend Conventions and Convocations of the clergy, I was 
much disappointed in hearing and seeing so little of what 
might be truly called religion. The chief use which I made 
of the observation was that of a motive to self-examination. 
I have ever been too sensible of my own defects to feel qua- 
lified for casting the stone at others." 

This is so appropriate a place for an illustrative anecdote 
that I must interrupt the Bishop a moment while I record it. 
Though it relates to a subsequent period of his life, yet, as 
the order of events is not very strictly observed in the l 
ment from which I haye been copying, the anecdote may as 
well be inserted here as in its proper chronological connection. 



66 MEMOIR OF 

One of the Bishop's JRhode-Island friends had been much 
troubled in mind at the fact that certain persons in the parish 
to which he belonged, though wholly devoted to a fashionable 
life, were still stated communicants in the Church. Having, 
therefore, an opportunity one day, he laid the case before the 
Bishop. "Bishop Griswold," he asked, "does it not pain 
you to see such persons at the sacrament while pursuing a 
course so wholly inconsistent with their Christian profes- 
sion f 9 " Mr. ," replied the Bishop, " at that holy ordi- 
nance, I am so overwhelmed with a sense of my own un- 
worthiness that I have then neither time nor desire to scan 
the unworthiness of others." 

Such a remark from such a man will not, of course, be re- 
garded as an expression of indifference to the fearful incon- 
sistency brought to his notice. Upon such inconsistency he 
looked with as keen a pain and as holy a frown as the strict- 
est Christian could desire. But his remark is an index to 
the habits of his own mind, and was doubtless one of his 
ways of teaching others the great evangelical duty of looking 
with a severer judgment on one's self than on others — the 
important truth that they are least qualified to act as judges 
who are naturally most censorious in their judgments. 

After expressing, as above, his sensibility to his own de- 
fects, he thus proceeds : 

" I may say, however, that from the time of my becoming 
a communicant, and still more from the time of my ordina- 
tion, I determined, by divine grace, that I would walk con- 
sistently with my profession, and that my conduct should 
bring no reproach upon religion. But, though this resolution 
was not without prayer, and was accompanied with some 
sense of my own frailty, yet there was in it too much of self- 
confidence. 1 had not then so fully learned what experience, 
under God, has since taught, the necessity of Divine grace, 
and that without Christ we can do nothing. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 67 

" When, therefore. I had, as it were, compelled myself to 
yield to what seemed the Lord's will respecting me, by de- 
voting myself to his service in the work of the ministry, I 
determined to sacrifice the ambitious views of a proud heart? 
to relinquish all hopes of riches and honors in this present 
life, and to make it my chief object to do good and be useful 
in the world. And it is hoped that I am not guilty of a 
' vain confidence of boasting, 5 in saying that I determined, as 
God should give me grace, to seek, ; by patient continuance 
in well-doing, glory, and honor, and immortality' in another 
and better world than this. I reflected much how transitory, 
if attained, is all worldly renown, and how truly it may be 
said, in the words of the poet, to be 

{ The same, — if Tully's, or my own.' 

In this, certainly, I can claim no credit to myself, for c neces- 
sity was laid upon me.' My duty to God and his Church, 
and the wants of a large and increasing family, with a salary 
inadequate to their support, required my whole care and my 
utmost exertions. In my early marriage, and in other 
events, the overruling providence of God hedged up my 
way. My whole time being engrossed by my parishes and 
by my family, I had none left for the indulgence of my natu- 
ral love and ambition of literary and worldly fame. I was 
driven, as it were, by shipwreck upon Immanuel's ground. 
During a period of about thirty years from my removal to 
Bristol, I was but in one instance so far able to forego the 
calls of duty as to make even a short journey of a day or 
two for rest and relaxation." 

Prom these remarks it must not be inferred that during 
this long period Mr. Griswold was a stranger to study, or 
that he spent no time in reading. What he was driven i<> 
abandon, in this respect, was his favorite indulgence in those 
studies by which he had at first hoped to raise himself to the 



68 MEMOIR OF 

proud eminence of the scholar's fame — general literature and 
science, " especially music and mathematics, natural philoso- 
phy and chemistry." From these, in obedience to his ordi- 
nation vow, as well as to the stern behests of Providence, he 
forced off his thoughts, and " drew all his cares and studies 
another way" — towards the Bible and those authors by whom 
the Bible is best illustrated. In these he became deeply 
learned ; few divines in our country, it is believed, have been 
more so. Nor yet must it be inferred that his abandonment 
of his original favorite studies was so entire that he never 
again looked into them. 

The story of the Bishop's buying and reading La Place's 
Mechanique Celeste, I have every reason to believe is strictly 
true. 

Notwithstanding the remark of one of the Reviews, that 
there were but few men in England who read La Place's 
book, Messrs. Wells & Lilly, at that time well-known book- 
sellers in Boston, had imported a copy of the work. For a 
time it laid on their counter with no other notice save that 
now and then a customer would take it up, look at it, and 
lay it down. One day, however, a venerable, white-headed 
man came in, and happening to take up the work, appeared 
to become absorbed in its contents. At length, he asked the 
price of it, and, as the incident was related to me, bought it 
and quietly walked away. Mr. Wells, feeling a great curi- 
osity to learn the name of the stranger, requested his clerk 
to follow him, and, if possible, ascertain who he was. His 
clerk did so, and soon saw him enter the house of Shubael 
Bell, Esq., then one of our distinguished laymen of Boston, 
residing in School street. On inquiring at the door, he 
learned that the person whom he had followed was none 
other than Bishop Griswold. Some time afterwards, Judge 
M., of Boston, an intimate friend of the Bishop, asked him 
" whether the account were true, and whether he read La 
Place?" "Yes," replied the Bishop, "I have sometimes 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 69 

amused myself that way, but of late, finding mathematics in 
danger of interfering with my other duties, I have laid them 
aside." This latter part of the account I had from Judge M. 
himself. 

But, to proceed with the auto-biography. After alluding to 
one instance in which he was enabled to break away from 
his home cares and duties so far as to make a journey for 
rest and relaxation, he adds : 

"That one instance was attended with circumstances 
deeply impressed on my memory. In 1809, when travel- 
ling by stages was rare in comparison with what we have 
since known, I went in a chaise with my wife to visit my 
relations in Connecticut, and my brother in Great-Barrington, 
(Massachusetts.) The weather being very warm, and, as it 
happened, my journey very fatiguing, I was at my brother's 
suddenly taken sick. Being exceedingly desirous, if possi- 
ble, to reach home, I commenced my return when no one 
thought me in a fit state to leave my bed. After travelling 
ten or fifteen miles, and feeling myself growing more ill, 
I desired to stop and pass the night in Norfolk, Litchfield 
County. But the innkeeper supposing my illness to be 
some contagious fever, and fearing danger from the conta- 
gion, was unwilling to entertain me. It is remarkable that 
about three months afterwards I heard of his decease. So 
uncertain is human life ! 

" With much difficulty and in great distress I continued 
six or eight miles further, where I passed the night and had 
a physician with me. The next day, with still greater dif- 
ficulty I reached my mother's dwelling in Simsbury ; and 
by the time I reached it the probability was that my life 
would soon be terminated. Two of the best physicians in 
those parts, who were about my own age and in the full vigor 
of health, daily attended me, but could see no hope of my 
recovery. When for a week or two it seemed to all that 



TO MExMOIR OF 

every day must be my last, the 17th and 18th verses of the 
118th Psalm were almost continually and in a remarkable 
manner occurring to my mind, ' I shall not die, but live 
and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chas- 
tened me sore ; but he hath not given me over unto death.' 
It was his gracious will that I should recover, and never 
since have I read that Psalm without being affected by the 
remembrance of the scene in which it came so signally to 
my support. 

" That sickness and my recovery from it made, I have 
reason to believe, a good and lasting impression on my 
mind. It was the more aifecting from the remarkable cir- 
cumstance that the two physicians who attended me, and 
who were my friends and old acquaintance, both died a 
very few months after my illness. From that time I re- 
joiced the more that the way of godliness had, as it seemed, 
been my refuge ; that disappointments and providential 
events had led me to devote myself to God in the ministry 
of the Gospel. Often since have I trembled at what might 
have been my career and my end had the Lord let me alone, 
or had he ordered all things according to my mind ; and 
often have I thought of the remark of one who, seeing a 
condemned criminal led to execution, exclaimed, ' But for 
the grace of God I had been in his place !' We are too for- 
getful who it is that makes us to differ from others. Not- 
withstanding his providential care of me, which in many 
instances not recorded in this sketch has been very remark- 
able, and at times very affecting, I must with penitence and 
shame acknowledge how little I have profited by his good- 
ness, how continually I have neglected duty, and how often 
I have erred from his righteous ways." 

It will be remembered that when sketching his childhood, 
and recording the almost fatal illness through which he 
passed when ten years of age, he alludes to two other spe- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 71 

cial instances in which, as if by almost a miracle, he had 
been rescued from death. One of these two instances we 
have seen reason to believe was his preservation on " the 
cold Friday" of 1779-80. The other, we may perhaps 
reasonably conclude, was his deliverance from the peril 
encountered on the journey of which he has just given 
an account ; although it is possible that the reason why he 
singled this from the " many other instances not recorded 
in this sketch" is to be found, not in its being more remark- 
able than others, but in its more special connection with 
the history of his religious feelings and character. Through- 
out his subsequent life his travels in the midst of serious 
illness were many times repeated ; nor were there wanting 
other instances of peril from which he was providentially 
rescued. But that just recorded, besides being very signal, 
was evidently associated in his mind with an important 
movement in his divine life, with a more cordial acquies- 
cence in the appointments of God, and with an increase of 
light in his views of the great doctrines of grace. And it 
is to my mind a pleasing circumstance that through great 
suffering and some seeming unkindness he was led to urge 
his way onward till he reached his birth-place; that he 
there laid himself down apparently to die under the very 
roof, and probably in the very room, where, at ten years 
of age, he considered himself as having already entered the 
dark valley of the shadow of death ; and that from the 
identical place where heaven was first opened on his long- 
ing view, he went forth to cast the blessings of his now 
increased light along the path of his still prolonged journey- 
ings upon earth. 

Having in the last two extracts from the auto-biograpliy 
glanced at the history of his mind in its natural passion for 
reading and general study, and at the history of his religious 
feelings and character under the providential discipline of 
God, he proceeds with a series of remarks on th< practical 



72 MEMOIR OF 

habits of his life, which I can not too earnestly commend 
to the consideration of his readers, especially of those who 
are engaged, like him, in the work of the ministry. 

" In regard to my pecuniary affairs, though from the first 
my salary was inadequate to the expenses of my family, yet 
I made it a rule thankfully to receive what was allowed or 
given me, and as already remarked never to ask for more, 
or to complain that I had too little. In Connecticut I added 
to my means of living by cultivating a few acres of land, 
and by preparing some young men for college ; and in Bris- 
tol, till my election to the Episcopate, I had the charge of a 
large school. 

"Another rule which I adopted was, always to live within 
my means — never to be in debt, to owe no man any thing 
but love, and ever to be prepared when called upon to pay 
my just dues. Never, I believe, have I for the same dues 
been called upon twice. 

" Those of the laity who are much engaged in worldly 
business may not always find it convenient" (yet ought 
not even they to make it always their duty ?) " to do this ; 
but I have St. Paul's authority for recommending it to my 
clerical brethren. Their being in debt is attended with 
some serious evils. They had better, like the Apostle, 
labor with their hands, or become instructors of youth, 
than anticipate their resources or owe that which they can 
not pay. In many cases some bodily labor would improve 
their health, prolong their lives, and increase their useful- 
ness. In mere literary pursuits we are in much danger of 
regarding our pleasure or our fame beyond what is compati- 
ble with our solemn dedication of ourselves to the service 
of God and religion, and with our engagement to ' draw all 
our cares and studies this way.' What may be called 
Christian virtue is an imitation of Christ ; a desire to do 
good ; a readiness gladly to sacrifice, in a reasonable degree 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 73 

and so far as the word of God requires, our wealth, and 
pleasure, and ease, and whatever we delight in, to honor 
God and to promote the true welfare and happiness of our 
fellow-men. 

" It seems not to be duly considered by Christians gene- 
rally that the foundation of benevolence, the ground-work 
of well-doing, is to do no harm — to avoid every thing inju- 
rious, unjust, or wrong. There are those, and their numbers 
not few, who are very active in doing good, but who yet 
consider little what evils may result from some part of their 
conduct. Men may be much celebrated for their acts of 
charity, or benevolence, or public benefits, while in other 
things, less noticed and less thought of, they inflict evils 
which balance, and more than balance, their boasted good. 
It had been better for the world if many whose names stand 
high on the list of fame had never lived. To be truly good 
requires no small share of humility. ' Love worketh no ill. 3 
That charity without which we are nothing that is good { suf- 
fereth long and is kind ; envieth not ; seeketh not her own ; 
is not easily provoked ; thinketh no evil ; rejoice th not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, and 
endureth all things.' Our blessed Saviour said, ' If I honor 
myself my honor is nothing.' What, then, is the i worldly 
honor which we seek but our shame V " 

This is, perhaps, the most fitting place to record a few 
other rules found among his private papers : 

" RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED IN EARLY LIFE | OR, MAXIMS AND 
RULES WHICH I HAVE ADOPTED AND ENDEAVORED TO 
PRACTISE. 

" 1. Never to ask another to do for me what I can as well 
do for myself. 

"2. When censured or accused, to correct, not justify, my 
error. 

4 



74 



MEMOIR OF 



" 3. From a child, in reading any thing applicable to the 
improvement of the mind, or the conduct of life, to consider 
first and chiefly how it may be applied to myself. 

" 4. In all clashing claims, where rights are equal and one 
must yield, to do it myself 

" 5. To have a trust that, in all the events and exigencies 
of life, if I strictly do my duty, and walk according to the 
Christian rule, however I may seem to suffer, what is really 
best for me the Lord will give." 

Upon the first of these rules Bishop Griswold acted, to the 
last day of his life, more literally than any other man within 
my knowledge — so literally, that he would not allow a do- 
mestic, in his presence, to carry a pail of water to his sleep 
ing apartment, or an armful of wood into his study. He 
would often interrupt them as they were ascending the 
stairs, take their burdens from them, and carry them np 
himself. And as he ordinarily kept no man-servant, he stu- 
died, by every means in his power, to lighten the drudgery 
of the female members of his household. A gentleman who 
was for a time a boarder in his family was accustomed, on 
retiring to rest, to set his boots in the passage, outside the 
door of his room. Of course he always found them, the next 
morning, nicely brushed and ready for use. After a while, 
however, he accidentally discovered, to his utter astonish- 
ment, that he had all along been indebted for his clean boots 
to the Bishop ! It is needless to add that he instantly put a 
stop to this mode of being so honorably served. 

I should not record private details like these in so grave a 
work, were it not that, in the present case, they were actual 
developments of high, generous feeling and principle. They 
were not whims, nor were they habits cleaving to one inca- 
pable of rising above early modes of rife. A little mind, 
raised by accident from obscurity, may make itself ridiculous 
by pretending to utter ignorance of humble toil ; but a noble 



BISHOP OIUSWOLD. ?5 

mind, which has risen by its own force, has feelings for the 
children of drudging poverty, into which none but itself can 
enter, and will often long, even when it is not in its power, 
and with a yearning of sympathy which even itself cannot 
express, to lighten the burdens which others are bearing in 
its service. This feeling, without doubt, prompted the fol- 
lowing sentiments, which I find among the Bishop's private 
papers : 

" I have always," he remarks, " had great respect for those 
who labor, bearing the heaviest burdens of life, providing us 
with food and raiment, and with almost every thing that pre- 
serves life and renders it comfortable. None, better than 
they, deserve the comforts to which they so largely con- 
tribute. 5 ' 

Upon the second of the rules above recorded he comments 
thus : u I have observed that a hasty, inconsiderate self-justi- 
fication and resentment of censure or reproof is a very gene- 
ral and a very injurious propensity of our nature." The 
following incident will illustrate the manner in which he 
applied this rule to practice : 

During his residence in Bristol, a Baptist minister, with 
more of zeal than of discretion, became impressed with the 
conviction that the Bishop was a mere formalist in religion, 
and that it was his duty to go and warn him of his danger, 
and exhort him to " flee from the wrath to come." Accord- 
ingly, he called upon the Bishop, very solemnly made known 
his errand, and forthwith entered on his harangue. The 
Bishop listened in silence till his self-const itntr J instructor 
had closed a severely denunciatory exhortation, and then, in 
-:il stance, replied as follows: "My dear friend, I do not 
wonder that they who witness the inconsistency of my daily 
walk, and see how poorly I adorn the doctrine of God my 
Saviour, should think that 1 have no religion. 1 often I 
for myself that such is the case, and feel very grateful to you 



76 MEMOIR OF 

for giving me this warning." The reply was made with such 
an evidently unaffected humility, and with such a depth of 
feeling and sincerity, that if an audible voice from heaven had 
attested the genuineness of his Christian character, it could 
not more effectually have silenced his kindly intending but 
misjudging censor, or more completely have disabused him 
of his false impression. He immediately acknowledged his 
error, begged the Bishop's pardon, and ever afterwards 
looked upon him as one of the distinguished lights of the 
Christian world. 

But it is time to proceed with our extracts from the auto- 
biography. It will next lead us to look abroad from its 
author upon the condition of the Church in his day. 

" They who are now young can not easily appreciate the 
change which, within the last thirty years, has been silently 
wrought among the clergy of our Church in their religious 
views, and in their style of preaching. This remark is true 
so far, certainly, as my own knowledge has extended. What 
is now generally required as faithful preaching of the gospel, 
would then have given offence to very many of our most 
staunch Episcopalians, while the style of preaching then most 
in von-ue among us would now be generally regarded as very 
defective. The deep-rooted and violent opposition to Epis- 
copacy which was then cherished in Connecticut was not, by 
Episcopalians themselves, borne with that meekness and 
charity and pious trust in God which, as we are now more 
sensible, becometh the disciples of Christ. A spirit of secta- 
rianism and of controversy was prevalent among all denomi- 
nations, and, as usually happens in such cases, all could more 
easily see the faults of others than their own." 

After further remarks on this unhappy state of religious 
dissension and its influence on the style of preaching which 
then prevailed, he goes on to observe : 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 77 

" The clergy of the Episcopal Church are men of like pas- 
sions with others. It is not strange that those times, ' which 
tried men's souls,' should have shown that we all come short 
of perfection. I carried with me to Bristol too much of the 
prejudice and bigotry which I had imbibed in Connecticut. 
There was still remaining among Episcopalians not a little 
of that proud contempt of the Puritans and of what was 
termed fanaticism, which belonged to the so-called ' Old 
School,' whose origin may be said to date in the reign of the 
second Charles of England. Adopting the practice of my 
brethren, whom I thought wiser than myself, my preaching 
had been far too much on sectarian distinctions and topics of 
controversy, especially against high Calvinism and schisma- 
tics, and quite too frequently in defence of the distinctive 
principles of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to the too 
great neglect of the essential doctrines of Christ, and of the 
necessary duties of Christians. This manner of preaching 
among our clergy very much strengthened the belief among 
other denominations that Churchmen, as we were then called, 
were but formalists and bigots, regarding the Church more 
than religion, and the Prayer-Book more than the Bible; 
departing from their own Articles and Homilies, and desti- 
tute of true piety and renovation of heart. And much mor- 
tified, grieved, and humbled have I formerly been that these 
things should be so much said, and I so little able to refute 

them. 

' Pudct hsec opprobria nobis, 

Et did potuisse, ct non potuisso refelli.' 

To God's praise, not ours, be it said, that at the present time 
a far better state of things among us prevails. 

" And not only are things in a better state now ; but even 
then, this bigotry and sectarian spirit were, I have reason to 
believe, more prevalent in Connecticut than in other portions 
<»f our Church. This was owing, no doubt, to their peculiar 
circumstances and trials, as well as to the character of a State 



78 MEMOIR OF 

formerly so noted for controversy and litigation. Certainly 
in Rhode Island I found a materially different condition of 
things. Those of my sermons which, in Connecticut, had 
appeared to be most acceptable, and were most applauded, 
gave offence in Bristol, Providence, and Newport ; and I soon 
found that, by continuing the controversial style of preach- 
ing, some of the most pious of her members would be driven 
from the Church. This was particularly true of those called 
Methodists. They had recently formed a society in Bristol, 
consisting of a few respectable people, who had been com- 
municants in the Congregational Church. On my arrival in 
Bristol, they had a minister who preached for them one half 
of the time ; and as I was informed, (too late, indeed,) they 
at once passed a resolution in their meeting, that they would, 
for the other half, attend my ministry. It has since been my 
belief that had I, in my teaching at that time, followed the 
example of St. Paul, (1 Cor. ii. 2; ix. 19-22,) they would 
have united with the Episcopal Church. But the Lord 
reigns, and perhaps He ordered it for the best. The Epis- 
copal Church was soon filled, and the Methodists soon had 
a large society there, and have been instrumental of much 
good." 

This extract is valuable as furnishing unequivocal proof 
of an important change in the views, as well as in the course, 
which had been adopted by Mr. Griswold upon his entrance 
into the ministry. There is, indeed, no reason for supposing 
that he ever caught the controversial mania in its full viru- 
lence. From the very first, he evidently belonged to the 
more serious and spiritual class of the clergy of our Church, 
and had a standard both of religious feeling and of religious 
action altogether higher than that which had been set up 
around him. Still, the idea which I have from time to time 
intimated, that his views were not, at first, clearly and fully 
developed, and that events in the providence of God subse- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 79 

quently wrought a marked change in his character, both as a 
Christian and as a minister of Christ, is abundantly sustained. 
When he wrote the last extract, at the age of seventy-four, 
he was far from being, religiously, the same man as when he 
kept the Methodists from uniting under his ministry by a 
style of preaching which has. no doubt, in numberless other 
instances, been the means of shutting out from our Church 
her best materials for growth, and even of expelling from 
her veins some of her own best life-blood. Experience has. 
I apprehend, demonstrated that the best way of extending 
the institutions of our Episcopacy is not found in asserting 
for them exclusive claims; in the dogma, "No Bishop, no 
Church ;*' or hi a course which shows that there is more 
heart, more zeal, and more ability in preaching Church 
government and Church polity, than in preaching Jesus 
Christ, and Him crucified. 

In what respect the change, to which I have adverted, in 
Mr. Gris wold's views and practice, first began to manifest 
itself, and to contribute to the result of filling the Episcopal 
Church under his ministry, may, perhaps, be gathered from 
the next extract to be made from his auto-biography : 

'• So far as I know,*' he writes, " I was, of our clergy in 
New-England, the first to hold evening lectures. Though 
this is now a thing so common, yet it was then by many of 
our good people exceedingly disliked. Our Bishop in Con- 
necticut once observed in my hearing, ; Night-preaching and 
pulpit-praying are two things which I abhor.' But other 
denominations practised both, and soon after my settlement 
in Bristol I found that many of my parishioners attended 
their meetings; and it was, at first, from fear of the result 
of their straying away among those who appeared to haw 
more zeal, that I proposed to our Vestry, and with difficulty 
obtained their leave, to open my church for a third service 
on Sunday evenings. I have had reason to believe thai this 



80 MEMOIR OF 

was the most fruitful part of my ministry, because more 
people attended at the third service than at the other two, 
not a few of whom attended our service at no other time. I 
continued the practice of three services every Sunday for 
thirty years — so long, indeed, as I had a parish particularly 
under my pastoral care," 

A pretty good proof is here furnished that he had done 
shutting the doors of the Church by turning the oft-heard 
key of her excluding claims ; and that, in opening them, he 
had also found the secret of drawing in those who had before 
been shut out — the simple secret of showing that the Church 
can be quite as full of the gospel of Christ crucified as she is 
of letters patent to successorship from the apostles, in the 
line of the ministry which they organized. 

The religious condition of the parish in Bristol, when Mr. 
Griswold became its Rector, was emphatically at low tide. 
Its number of communicants was very small, while even 
this small number was not characterized by any very en- 
lightened views of Christian truth or of Christian character. 
Whenever they were met together for the purpose of talk- 
ing about religion, they were in the habit of dismissing the 
young people from the room, as though they were not 
expected to take any interest in the subject. Of course, the 
mass of the population were sadly regardless of its claims. 
But long before he left the place a marked change in its reli- 
gious character had been produced, in which he was felt and 
acknowledged to have been largely instrumental. He was 
reverenced and beloved as a man who exerted a deep, 
steady, healthful influence, and who exerted that influence 
in such a way as to constrain respect and kindness even 
from those who refused to follow his instructions. He was 
in one sense irresistible even to the wicked, in that his man- 
ners though holy were yet kind, and in that his reproofs 
though faithful were yet gentle. " The notoriously sinful 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 81 

and profane quailed at his presence, and were compelled to 
show him their respect.*' Such is the written language of 
one who has lived in his family and been Ions; under his 
ministry ; and it is evidently a version of the remark which 
I heard from several during my visit to Bristol, that the 
very drunkard in the street, if he happened to see Bishop 
Griswold coming and so near that he could not retreat from 
sight, would at least steady himself against the nearest- 
post, or wall of a house, and maintain all possible gravity 
and respectfulness until the holy man had passed out of 
view. 

The character of society around him, and the class of 
minds over which his influence was exerted, were consider- 
ably changed. There was in Bristol more of that artificial 
life which accompanies wealth and education than there had 
been in Litchfield county. But amidst all he continued 
the same humble, laborious, and world-renouncing man ; 
while the character of his own mind, rising with the exi- 
gencies that tasked it, was found as adequate to the work of 
influencing and moulding the elements about him as when 
he moved in the simplest circles of the most rural life. 
Although he never was a man who arrested popular atten- 
tion at once, and who, wherever he went, assumed forthwith 
the port of command, the attitude of a leader, yet he was a 
man whose mind, in proportion as you came close to it and 
jsed your demands on its powers, exhibited those powers 
in their richest variety, and in their true extent. lie was a 
man whose influence always grew with the continuance of his 
citizenship in any particular place. If he did not strike at 
once, he struck surely ; and what he gained in influence he 
never lost. The cheerful humility, the voluntary lowli 
of Mr. Griswold was through life favorable to true growth 
and permanency of influence. If it kept him low and much 
out of sight, it kept him so much nearer the people, the 
tt mass of life and strength in every country. He did 
4* 



82 MEMOIR OF 

his work in the depths, not on the surface of society. He 
was a diamond in the mine, ready to shine whenever brought 
out, and cut most providentially and most fitly for the occa- 
sion which was so soon to draw him forth to view. 

Before, however, we leave this part of the memoir, the 
fact must be recorded that in consequence of impaired 
health and the heavy pressure of his duties at Bristol, he 
had made up his mind to return to Connecticut, and had 
accepted an invitation to take charge of the parish of St. 
Michael's, in the town of Litchfield. So little could he fore- 
see to what God was about to call him. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 83 



CHAPTER VI. 

ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EASTERN DIOCESE, AND OF 
THE ELECTION AND CONSECRATION OF BISHOP GRISWOLD. 

In proceeding now to detail the facts which led to the con- 
secration of Bishop Griswold, the best preface which I can 
give will be found in the brief and simple narrative which 
he has himself furnished in his auto-biography. Having 
recorded the failure of the effort in Rhode-Island to place 
those churches under the care of Bishop Moore, he pro- 
ceeds : 

"After that nothing respecting this business was done till 
the proposal which was made for a union of the Eastern 
States in one Diocese. This was first mentioned to me by 
the Rev. Win. Montague, whom for the first time I then 
saw. But as I had already determined to return to Con- 
necticut, I thought it not proper that I should take any part 
in the business ; and I have often wondered since that I did 
not then feel more interest in it, and make more inquiry 
about what was done and doing respecting it. At that time 
I was still relying too much on my own wisdom, and occu- 
pied with what seemed to me the best course for my future 
life. Notice was sent me of the proposed convention of the 
ftrar States, to be held in Boston, for the purpose of electing 
a bishop. But considering that I should not belong to the 



84 MEMOIR OF 

new diocese, I thought it was not my duty to take any part 
in the choice of its bishop. And it so happened that my 
appointment to visit Litchfield and make preparations for 
my removal was at the same time with the meeting of the 
proposed convention. The Rev. Mr. Ward, then officiating 
in Newport, who was a native of Litchfield and wished to 
visit his friends there, had agreed to accompany me. But 
a day or two before we were to commence our journey, he 
sent me word that he had been taken ill, and requested me 
to postpone it till the following week. I was not a little 
disappointed ; still, I consented to his request. 

" While I was thinking of this disappointment it sud- 
denly occurred to me that, as my school had been dismissed 
and I was therefore not particularly engaged, it would be 
pleasant to attend the Convention and become acquainted 
with the clergy, who were then almost all strangers to me. 
On my way to Boston my mind became suddenly and deeply 
impressed with the importance to the Church of the busi- 
ness on which we were about to meet ; and most earnestly 
did I pray that the Lord would mercifully direct us in what 
we should do. In Boston I called on the Rev. Mr. Bronson, 
(the clerical delegate from Vermont,) who was a native of 
Connecticut, and with whom I was acquainted, and informed 
him that I had for some time been of the opinion that the 
Rev. Mr. Hobart, of New- York, could they obtain him, 
was of all the clergy of my acquaintance the best qualified 
to be their bishop. It had not then occurred to me that he 
might be expecting an election in his own State. Mr. Bron- 
son replied that he had written to Mr. Hobart on the sub- 
ject, and (if I remember aright) read me the answer which 
he had received, declining to be a candidate for the office in 
the Eastern Diocese. 

"What the election was is well known. To the gentle- 
men who communicated to me the result, I replied that I 
was ready then to give an answer, and should not hesitate 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 85 

to decline the acceptance of an office for which I deemed 
myself unqualified. And if I ever uttered a word of truth 
I uttered it then. One of the first thoughts that entered 
my mind, and caused me no little anxiety was, that the 
Lord in displeasure had suffered such an election. I was, 
however, earnestly requested to delay my answer, and to 
give the subject the most serious consideration : a request 
to which I assented. 

M The subject was of course very seriously considered. 
One of the first points on which I came to a determination 
was, that in case even one clergyman in any of the four 
States should be found opposed to my acceptance of the 
ofgce I would not accept. The Rev. Mr. Fisher, of Salem, 
did not attend the Convention, and the Rev. Mr. Bowers, 
of Marblehead, voted, I was told, for another person. 1 
visited these two brethren and frankly stated to them my 
views, and they both expressed to me their wish that I would 
accept. I then determined to consult Bishop Jarvis and 
those of the clergy of Connecticut with whom I was 
acquainted, and accordingly made a journey through that 
State for the purpose. Without seeming to doubt or 
hesitate, they all advised my acceptance. Some further 
measures which I took to satisfy my mind, and the resolu- 
tions which I made on the occasion, need not be mentioned. 
It is enough to add that the election was in May, and that 
in the following September, not without diffidence and 
fears, I signified to the adjourned Convention my acceptance. 
Whether I did wisely and was actuated by right views, 
the God of Heaven knoweth. May he compassionate my 
frailty and forgive my sins ! 

"My consecration took place in New- York, in May, 
1811." 

No one could possibly have been taken more by sur- 
prise by such an election than was Mr. Griswold. Up to 



86 MEMOIR OF 

the evening before the election he was in the profoundest 
ignorance of the intentions of his brethren. On that even- 
ing he and the Rev. Mr. Bronson, of Vermont, had remained 
after the meeting of a committee appointed to draft a Con- 
stitution for the Eastern Diocese, to copy and complete the 
report. When this labor was ended, and as Mr. Bronson 
was about entering on general conversation, Mr. Griswold 
inquired of him whether the members of the Convention 
had any particular candidate for the new bishopric in view ? 
Mr. Bronson told him they had, and asked him whether he 
had heard of their selection % Upon his answering " No," 
Mr. Bronson rejoined, "Then let me tell you, 'thou art the 
man.' " Upon this announcement he started into wild agi- 
tation. After a few moments, however, he collected him- 
self and observed, " Mr. Bronson, you can not be in earnest. 
You must all be sensible of my unfitness for the office. I 
have not the talents, nor the learning, nor the manner which 
are requisite to give to that office dignity and respectability. 
You must select some more suitable man." To this Mr. 
Bronson replied, " Sir, you must be the candidate or we 
shall have no election," and was proceeding to urge his ac- 
ceptance, when Mr. Griswold suddenly requested him to 
drop the subject, and in a few moments retired from the 
room. In what state of mind he spent the remainder of 
the day and the ensuing night may be easily conjectured. 

During the transactions of Thursday morning there was 
visible a marked change in the appearance and manner of 
Mr. Griswold. He took no part in the debates on the pro- 
posed Constitution ; he scarcely noticed what was going for- 
ward, but seemed lost in a continual reverie. The same thing 
was manifest upon meeting, pursuant to adjournment, at 5 
o'clock in the afternoon, and during the silent process of 
balloting for the choice of a bishop. When the result of 
this process was declared, and it appeared that by the suf- 
frages of every member of the Convention, with a single 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 87 

clerical exception, he had been elected to the newly -created 
office, he appeared completely overwhelmed by the power 
of his emotions. What these emotions were we may judge 
from his own remark in the auto-biography : " One of the 
first thoughts that entered my mind was, that the Lord in 
displeasure had suffered such an election." After a 
moment's pause he rose in great agitation and declined the 
honor which had been conferred upon him. Promptly and 
impulsively, yet (in the sincerity of his heart as it then beat 
within him) utterly, did he decline both the honor and the 
office in which it was offered. It was then proposed to 
adjourn to give him time for consideration. But he replied, 
he wanted no time, he was ready to give his decision at the 
call of the moment. The Convention, however, did adjourn 
for three months ; and when his emotion had in a measure 
subsided, and his diffidence was in a degree overcome, he 
finally consented to take the question of acceptance into 
consideration. He yielded as to an unseen hand that was 
shaping both his own destiny and that of the Church over 
which he was called to preside. With the result of his con- 
sideration we have already been made acquainted. The 
Rev. Mr. Montague took him in his carriage on a visit to 
Connecticut, where he was even urgently entreated to accept 
the office to which he had been elected ; and the Convention 
of that Diocese being about that time in session, it was 
moved and unanimously voted in convocation of the clergy 
that a congratulatory letter be addressed to him, and that 
Bishop Jarvis be requested, in behalf of the convocation, 
to write and forward said letter to him. 

The time for his anxiously-expected decision was now 
drawing near. As yet, it is believed, no one knew what t hat 
decision was to be. Hope amidst fear was the lx>st feeling 
that reigned in the minds of those who had elected him. l>ui 
on the 12th of September he addressed to the President of 
the electing Convention the following letter of acceptance : 



88 MEMOIR OF 

" Bristol, September 12th, 1810. 
" Rev. and Dear Sir : 

c, As the time approaches when our Convention, according 
to adjournment, will again convene, it becomes necessary, 
agreeably to their resolution, that I should communicate to 
you my determination respecting their late election. It will 
be needless to trouble you with observations on my ina- 
bility and disqualifications, which will too soon be known. 
The Convention were pleased to call me to a very sacred 
and important office, which requires the most serious con- 
sideration. At first, indeed, there appeared no room for 
doubt or hesitation : there seemed to be every reason for 
declining an undertaking so arduous, so responsible in its 
nature, and for the effectual discharge of which I possessed 
so few of the requisite qualifications. But farther reflec- 
tion suggested that a call of this serious and important 
nature ought not to be declined, any more than complied 
with, without great and mature deliberation ; that we ought 
not to shrink from any duty to which God is pleased to call 
us, from a conscious inability of doing ourselves honor in 
case we can do good. N or is the sacrifice of ease and other 
temporal comforts necessary to the discharge of this or any 
other office in the Church sufficient excuse to satisfy the 
minds of those who have sincerely engaged in the Gospel 
ministry. Having consulted with many whose judgment 
and advice I have every reason to respect, it seems to be 
their general if not unanimous voice that the present pecu- 
liar state of this Diocese requires my acceptance of the 
Episcopate ; and however desirable may be a more able and 
worthy candidate, that it is, under existing circumstances, 
my indispensable duty to acquiesce. To Him, therefore, who 
is able to make the humblest instrument subservient to the 
purposes of His providence, I yield the result. Should 
the Convention, who have now had time for more mature 
deliberation, judge it still expedient, all circumstances con- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 89 

ed, to adhere to what they have done, I shall not refuse 
any compliance with their wishes. Trusting in God and in 
their candid indulgence and friendly counsels. I shall devote 
my future hours to the good and. benefit of those churches 
whom the Lord shall please to put under my care ; humbly 
endeavoring by zeal and diligence to supply what in other 
talents is deficient. 

" With all due respect, 

*• I am your friend and brother, 

"Alexander V. Griswold. 
'* Rev. John S. J. Gardiner, 

" President of Convention/' 

This letter was communicated to the Convention on Tues- 
day, the 25th of September, to which time it stood adjourned ; 
and upon being read, the Convention was dissolved. 

On Wednesday, the 26th of September, was holden the 
first of the Biennial Conventions of the Eastern Diocese under 
the new constitution, delegates thereto having been appointed 
by the separate Conventions of the four States. Before this 
Convention the Bishop elect preached the sermon which he 
had previously been requested to prepare. The action of 
the Convention consisted in electing its first Standing Com- 
mi t tee ; in devising means for the more ample support of 
the Bishop ; in requesting a copy of Mr. Griswold's sermon 
for the press; in appointing a committee to present him to 
the House of Bishops for consecration ; in signing his testi- 
monials ; and in sending him by a committee the following 
vote : 

"That the Convention acknowledge with pleasure his 
acceptance of the Episcopate, and assure him that they will 
cordially and faithfully cooperate with him in the disch 
of his duty." 

Thus the Eastern Diocese came into existence, and its first 



90 MEMOIR OF 

and only Bishop was elected. An almost visible divine 
Providence presided over the inception of this movement. 
Here was a man fitted, beyond all others then known, for 
the exigencies which called him forth — a man severe, simple, 
and primitive in his manners, and thus qualified to smooth 
clown and ultimately wear out those Pilgrim prejudices 
against Episcopacy which had been excited by its accidental 
European association with wealth, and pomp, and power — a 
man increasingly filled with the very marrow and richness 
of the Gospel, and thus fitted to meet and counteract that 
system of cold and merely moral preaching which had so 
extensively obtained possession of our New-England Epis- 
copal pulpit — a man sound and orthodox in his creed, both 
as a Churchman and as a divine, and thus prepared to 
encounter and resist that fatal heterodoxy which had eaten 
so deeply into the heart of the ancient New-England theo- 
logy, and was even begimiing to infect the leading congrega- 
tions of our own Church — a man patient, humble, and self- 
denying, and thus formed to overcome, or to endure, the 
hardships, trials, and discouragements incident to a ministry 
which had for its field four rugged States and one bleak, 
extensive territory, and for its "nursing care" a body of 
few, feeble, and scattered parishes, some of which were 
already falling into ruins — a man well learned, of vigorous 
mind, and of most blamelessly holy life, and thus endowed 
with the best means of commanding the respect, winning the 
confidence, and securing the love of all into whose fellowship 
he should be brought, and to whose attention it might be his 
duty to commend the gospel of his divine Lord and Master • 
and yet a man unknown by character, and almost by name, 
to far the greater part of the Convention that elected him ; 
virtually an entire stranger to that body ; never before in 
Boston, save once when in his youth he accompanied his 
uncle on his way to Nova Scotia ; brought to the Convention 
by a most providential incident, when on the very eve of his 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 91 

final removal from the diocese; and, though active in all 
those arrangements in Rhode Island which looked towards 
this primary electing Convention in Boston, yefafcntering this 
latter body and finding himself at the very heart of its pro- 
ceedings before even the idea of being made a Bishop had 
entered his mind, or flitted on its most rapid wing through 
his thoughts ; startled into wild agitation when it was first 
privately hinted to -him ; overwhelmed with emotion when 
its reality burst publicly on his senses ; declining instantane- 
ously, and from his deepest heart, the office to which he was 
called ; and bending under the burden of the thought that 
God " in displeasure had suffered such an election to take 
place !" Was there in that humble minister a spark of feel- 
ing that could be termed either self-seeking or office-seeking ? 
Was it man's voice, or God's voice, that sounded in his ear, 
and bade him go forth of his seclusion ? Was it the Conven- 
tion, seeking for such a Bishop as would, at first, have best 
pleased the majority of its members, or was it God, provid- 
ing such a Bishop as He foresaw would, through a long life, 
minister most invigoratingly and most revivingly to the ne- 
cessities of his own feeble and languishing Church ? God's 
providence is often but his secret care over his own cause, 
evinced in the unforeseen results of human agency ; and in 
this sense it was perhaps never more visible than in that 
event the history of which I have thus far been tracing, and 
the final issue of which is now so near at hand. 

Allusion has been made to the sermon preached by M r. 
Griswold before this Convention. Considering the circum- 
stances under which it was delivered, the audience before 
which he spake, and the position in which he himself stood, 
it was every way as appropriate to the occasion as it was 
full of gospel truth, just thought, and happy diction — in very 
deed, a remarkable sermon; bold, yet not assuming; faith. 
ful, yet not indiscreet; pointed, yet not offensive; r<>v\-ir\. 
and even beautiful in style, yet not ambitious of notice for 



92 MEMOIR OF 

its beauty ; in a word, the outspeaking of the future Bishop. 
One of the leading Congregational ministers of Boston was 
present at if? delivery, and not knowing either the preacher 
or the relation in which he stood to the Convention, inquired, 
at the close of the service, who he was. Upon being told by 
the gentleman of whom he inquired, that it was Mr. Gris- 
wolcl, the Bishop elect of the Eastern Diocese, he rejoined, 
" Well, I can only say that, if such is to be the general cha 
racter of his preaching, he is worthy to be made the Arch- 
bishop of Christendom." 

[This sermon was published in the Appendix to the origi- 
nal Memoir ; and though room for it can not be made in this 
abridgment, yet an extract from it may be here introduced, 
both as a specimen of the whole, and by way of setting forth 
in his own language, and more explicitly than has yet been 
done, the doctrinal system which he held and taught, and to 
whose secret influence his own holy life is to be ascribed. It 
was on 2 Tim. 4 : 1-3. He thus enlarges on Paul's exhort- 
ation to " preach the word :"] 

" l Preach the word,' says the Apostle, comprising in two 
words an injunction of vast import. To preach the word, to 
preach the gospel, and to preach Jesus Christ, are common 
scriptural phrases of the same meaning. For though the 
word includes all Holy Scriptures written for our learning, 
and the whole law of God, the same Scriptures teach, that 
i Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every 
one who believeth.' All the prophets centre in him as the 
way and the life. The law looks forward, and the gospel 
back, to him alone, as the Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sins of the world. St. Peter, in his discourse before 
Cornelius, has given us a good explanation of what we may 
understand by preaching the word. 'The word,' he says, 
6 which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace 
by Jesus Christ, (he is Lord of all,) that word, I say, ye 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 93 

know, which was published throughout all Judea ; how God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
power ; whom they slew and hanged on a tree ; him God 
raised up the third day. And he commanded us to preach 
unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained 
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give all 
the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever be- 
lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins.' This, then, is 
the word which we are to preach — that Jesus Christ is the 
Lord our righteousness, who died for our sins, and rose again 
for our justification, and that eternal salvation is to be 
obtained through faith in his merits. This was the subject 
of St. Paul's preaching, who ' testified, both to the Jews and 
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward 
our Lord Jesus Christ.' Such should be the theme of our 
discourses. Whatever we teach, and however good in itself, 
which has no respect to the Redeemer, nor our salvation 
through him, is not his gospel, nor is it the word, in the 
Apostle's sense. VTe must preach the doctrines of the Sa- 
viour's cross ; such as the sinful, fallen state of man ; the 
redemption which is through His blood ; the necessity of a 
conversion from sin and renovation of the heart, through the 
sanctifying influence of the Divine Spirit ; with the insuffi- 
ciency of our best deeds and merit, and of our natural strength 
to attain acceptance with God and eternal life. We must 
preach ' repentance toward God,' as the necessary {^reparation 
fur his heavenly kingdom and the comforts of the gosju-1. 
We must set forth 'faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ' as 
the condition of salvation through his blood; as the clement 
of Christianity ; as the life and soul of moral gooclnr 

"We must also teach the necessitv, and exhort men to the 
performance of every religious duty, of every gospel ordi- 
nance, as the evidence, not of our righteousness, but of our 
faith. The sacred ordinances of our religion are, on God'fi 
part, testimonials of his love to as in Je^ir> Christ On our 



94 MEMOIR OF 

part they are public acknowledgments of our unworthiness 
to merit life eternal ; of our inability to save ourselves ; of 
our gratitude for God's mercies ; of our trust in the Lord 
our Redeemer, and submission to his righteousness. 

" Moral virtue, though not in itself the word we are to 
preach, is also a very necessary part of our preaching. It is 
1 a faithful saying,' and it is our duty to ' affirm constantly, 
that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain 
good works.' We are to teach the strictest and purest mo- 
rality ; not, indeed, as the foundation of our hope, or ground 
of our justification ; not as entitling us to heaven and happi- 
ness ; but as the just return for God's goodness ; as a grate- 
ful acknowledgment of his mercies ; as a cordial compliance 
with his will ; as the proper fruit of Christian faith ; as a 
participation in the Saviour's cross, and a conformity to his 
holy example, necessary to the glorious rewards of his hea- 
venly kingdom. 

" Such is the morality w T e are called to preach, founded on 
a faith in the doctrines of the gospel ; and it is the only mo- 
rality which will be of much real benefit to mankind. Let 
us expatiate ever so finely on the inherent beauty and amia- 
bleness of virtue ; though we ' speak with tongues of men 
and of angels' of the natural fitness of moral rectitude ; 
though we earnestly declaim against the vices of the age, 
and expose to view the deformity of sin, we shall never re- 
move it from the heart, nor make men better, till we make 
them Christians. When was the heart ever changed, or the 
world reformed, by this kind of teaching? Will the best 
precepts of morality, independent of the truths and motives 
which the gospel reveals, awaken sinners to repentance? 
Our flowery disquisitions on the various duties of life, though 
polished smooth as marble, will be as cold, nor touch the 
heart with the pure flame of devotion. That virtue is amia- 
ble, none £an deny. But are its charms alone sufficient to 
counterbalance the allurements of the world, and restrain the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 95 

inordinate propensities of corrupted nature? No — we must 
preach the ivord ; we must preach the gospel; we must 
preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified. We must cleanse 
the fountain, that the streams may be pure. The word, the 
quickening word of God must be ' grafted inwardly in the 
heart,' before it will c bring forth the fruit of good living.' 
They who are whole need not a physician, and they who think 
themselves whole feel not the want of one. Men must be 
sensible of their sinful, perilous state, before they will ' hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness,' which yet they must do 
before they are fed; for God fills the hungry with good 
things, and the vainly rich he sends empty away. How 
shall we apply to the great Physician, till we are sensible 
that ' we have no health in us V " 

Owing to the difficulty of then assembling the requisite 
number of Bishops, the consecration of Bishop Griswold 
did not take place till nearly a year after his election. His 
auto-biography refers to it as follows : 

"My consecration was at New York in 1811. Why the 
ordination of a Bishop should be so called, more than that 
of a Deacon or Presbyter, I do not know. The Rev. Dr. 
Hobart was ordained at the same time. Though he was 
several years younger than myself, was elected nearly a 
year after my election, and was chosen to be but an assist 
ant Bishop, still he was registered as my Senior, and uni- 
formly had the precedence. The purpose of this partiality 
was that he, rather than I, should, in the probable course of 
events, be the presiding Bishop. I would to God it might 
so have been. Through all my life, I have delighted most 
in retirement. To appear in any public or conspicuous 
station, has ever been unpleasant ; and as far as duty would 
admit, I have avoided it. It was with great reluctance thai 
I afterward consented to preside in the house of Bishops. It 



96 



MEMOIR OF 



was much more painful to me from my knowing that such 
measures had been taken to prevent it. The whole business 
has been much blessed to me in the subduing of a proud 
heart. My first two ordinations were not a little blessed in 
the same way ; but much more this last. Indeed, whether 
or not it be considered as boasting, I can truly say, that at 
no period of my life have I thought that I had less honor 
in this world than to my merits was due. In particular 
cases, certainly, (which may no doubt be said of almost 
every person who has occupied a conspicuous station in 
society,) I have been unjustly censured, and my motives 
and conduct have not been always duly appreciated : but in 
more instances my failings have not been generally known. 
A retrospect of my life past presents a most humiliating 
view of sins and follies." 

Attention has already been called to the almost visible 
Providence which brought to pass the election of Bishop 
Grriswold, and to his remarkable fitness for the post he so 
reluctantly assumed. It may, however, by some be sup- 
posed that had Bishop Griswold possessed more of the 
impulsive and dazzling qualities of character ; had his 
modesty and self-distrust been less, and his power to strike 
at once the popular mind, and to put in motion great 
schemes for the extension of the Church been greater ; he 
would have done a better work in his day, and left behind 
him more splendid monuments of his usefulness. But this 
may well be doubted. That which has the most sudden 
and the most imposing beginning does not always last long- 
est nor grow largest. Besides, when we consider the cha- 
racter of the population upon which he was to operate in 
the keen, cool, thoughtful sons of the Pilgrims, and the 
nature of the prejudices which he was to encounter in those 
feelings, which had once reared themselves as if into a wall 
of fire along the whole New-England coast, that Episcopacy 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 97 

might never live to effect a landing on their shores ; when 
we consider even these things, it will be evident that had he 
been other than the severely simple, modest, unpretending, 
holy and blameless man that he was, he never could have 
acquired the influence which he did ; he never could have 
laid that wall of fire into a mere quiet, harmless pathway 
for our Church to travel on ; he never could have left even 
in our own Church itself those deep, purifying, and har- 
monizing influences which it needed, which it has received, 
and on which, as a base, may now be reared a glorious 
superstructure ; in the words of Mr. Bronson, " a name and 
a praise in the earth." When God hath a special work to 
do, he uniformly fits his instrument to his occasion. Such 
evidently was his way in the case before us. To judge 
Bishop Griswold justly, we must not go to the city, where, 
indeed, his influence was always salutary and his reputation 
honorable, but to the country, where his great work lay, and 
where his presence was always hailed as that of a true man 
of God, and as that of a richly endowed ambassador for 
Christ. Never, probably, will the hills and valleys of New- 
England feel the tread of a foot or hear the sound of a voice 
that shall waken the echo of a more hearty welcome than 
his, or that shall find the moral elements around better 
prepared to yield to the quietly, unobtrusively growing 
influence of the man who shall walk there, or of the mes- 
senger who shall there proclaim " the unsearchable riches 
of Christ," 



9S 



MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY EVICTS IX THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISW0LD. 

Bishop Griswold was then in the ripe prime of life : his 
voice, though not strong, was vet clear and musical; his 
appearance remarkably dignified and impressive; and his 
influence peculiarly sweet, conciliating, and harmonizing. 
The hand of God had already twice been laid upon him, 
and was about to be laid upon him again, in the death of 
beloved children. His first Harriet died, as we have seen, 
in 1S05. His daughter Eunice, in the lovely womanhood 
of twenty, died but a few weeks before his consecration. 
And now, his eldest child, Elizabeth, his hrst-born, the wife 
of Mr. Augustus Collins, was just ready to drop from the 
parent stem on which she had grown ; while Viets, his 
eldest son, was on the eve of starting for Cuba in the vain 
hope of averting the approach of the insidious destroyer 
who had so openly fixed himself within the family circle. 
Thus he already stood like a man in the midst of 

r-garden ; seeing his cherished and beautiful flowers 
fading and dying around him; calm indeed, and uncom- 
plaining at the sight, yet filled by it with a strong and irre- 
- visibility, and touched by it to a deep and sacred 
musing. 

Such was Bi-hop Griswold when he first began to move 
among the churches committed to his care ; the well-fur- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 99 

nished and diligent, the meek, the subdued, the lovely ser 
vant of Jesus. All felt that he was a man whose thoughts 
were much in heaven. All realized that there was in his 
presence a something spiritual, not seen on other men. 
And many found that with him came the prayer that 
* ; availeth much," and the anointing of that Holy One who 
teacheth to know all things profitable to salvation. 

The condition of his Diocese, when he entered on his 
duties, may be judged by what has already been incident- 
ally said, and from the following statement : In the four 
States of Massachusetts, (which then included the District 
of Maine.) Rhode Island, New-Hampshire and Vermont, 
there were in all twenty-two parishes, and sixteen officiating 
clergymen. Of these parishes, however, several existed in 
little more than name : several others were very feeble ; 
and the main strength of the Diocese lay in a small num- 
ber of old and comparatively wealthy congregations. Even 
of these, however, Trinity Church, Boston ; St. John's. 
Providence ; and Trinity, Newport, were the only ones pos- 
sessed of- much strength. 

On the whole, the state of the Diocese was one of great 
and previously increasing weakness. Its eight years of 
existence without the superintending care of a Bishop had 
proved years of decay. Its tone of religious feeling and 
confidence had become confessedly depressed. Discourage- 
ment in some parts was setting in to sink it still lower. 
And the lack of discipline was admitting irregularities both 
in morals and in order, especially in the more retired parts 
of the Diocese. The consecration of a new Bishop was, 
d, hailed with satisfaction everywhere; and every- 
where he was received with cordiality and warm support. 
Still, as it is easy to see, an arduous work lay before him ; 
in some respects more arduous than that of building up an 
entirely new Diocese. To revive what has become languid 
and fixed in habits of inactivity ; and to harmonize and 



100 MEMOIR OF 

cement elements which have become loose and jarring 
through long absence of uniting, binding influences, is often 
more difficult than to collect new materials, and keep them 
in the progress of growth, and in a state of consolidation. 
There is, in this latter case, a feeling of fresh, new-born life, 
and of cheerful onward following in the counsels of a recog- 
nized and influential head, which is unknown in the former, 
and which is decidedly favorable to vigorous effort and to 
>aiccessful enterprise. But the very weakness of the Dio- 
cese to which he was called was one of the reasons why he 
accepted the call ; and therefore, the proofs of it with which 
lie met, neither surprised nor disheartened him. He entered 
on the difficult work before him, prepared for all its 
exigencies, and braced against all its discouragements; 
resolved, by ceaseless diligence, and blameless devotion to 
his Master's cause, to do all that, through the grace of God, 
might be possible in rearing up the fabric of a vital Church 
out of the still feeble remains of what the shock of revolu- 
tionary war had left well nigh destitute of life. 

It has passed into a sort of proverb, that the mitre is a 
1 overeign specific for the cure of defective churchmanship ; 
and by many it has been supposed to minister strengthen- 
ingly to a Bishop's love of power, and to a disposition to 
; ' magnify his office" even beyond the measure of apostolic 
zeal. But, however well founded such views may be, they 
were not realized in the case of Bishop Griswold. For, in 
Tact, he had no defective churchmanship to be cured ; while, 
in every other respect, the influence of his election and con- 
secration was to fix and settle him in wisely moderate 
views of the Church, and of that chief ministry in the 
Church to which he had been called. He was a Protestant 
Episcopal churchman in the fullest and best sense of the 
terms ; but, as a Bishop, he never belonged to any 'party in 
the Church. He went for Christ and the salvation of men ; 
he went for the Church in her integrity and purity : but he 



BISHOP ORISWOLD. 101 

went for no strained theory in either doctrine or polity ; 
and was more anxious by humble zeal and noiseless fidelity 
to adorn the office which he bore, than by extravagant 
claims and vociferous panegyric to urge it on the attention 
of others. It was evident to all who noticed him, that he 
regarded his office, not as an occasion for setting himself up 
as a lord over God's heritage, but simply as a means of 
doing increased good to the sheep of his pasture. He looked 
upon that office, not as conferring on him rights, titles, and 
immunities, but as imposing on him cares, duties, and 
responsibilities. He felt its call to increased diligence, 
humility, and spirituality in the service of Christ; and 
besides this, felt little else, and thought of little more. 

To the fact of his belonging to no party in the Church, 
he alludes in the following paragraph from his auto-biogra- 
phy ; and I give it as an important illustration of one of 
the leading traits in his Episcopal character and conduct : 

" Soon after my consecration, I found, and was in some 
degree surprised at finding a remarkable change in my feel- 
ings and affections towards the clergy in my Diocese. I 
had before, as I supposed, viewed those with whom I was 
acquainted, as brethren and friends, and as Christian charity 
required. But, after I became their Bishop, they seemed to 
me as children. I felt a lively interest in their honor, 
happiness, and prosperity, which I had never toll before. 
Whether this was selfishness concealed from my own view, 
1 will not decide. I was disposed (perhaps too much so) to 
regard it as the result of good and right influences ; it cer- 
tainly gave me pleasure ; and it no less certainly influenced 
me in the determination to treat them as a parent should his 
children, with equal favor and love. However in sentiment 
some may have differed from me, I certainly have endeav- 
I, to the utmost of my knowledge and power, to treal 
them all with strict impartiality. It was very natural that 



102 MEMOIR OF 

any one in the like situation should, by those especially 
who were interested, be suspected of partiality. I have 
accordingly been accused of it. On the contrary, however, 
some have thought that I did not sufficiently regard the 
interests of the Church in my adherence to such impar- 
tiality as that which I had determined to observe. Of this, 
I leave others to judge, intending no more than to declare 
what have been the facts and the principles of my conduct. 
" One thing is too evident to those who have any know- 
ledge of mankind, that, in times when conflicting interests, 
party spirit and differing creeds agitate society and divide 
Christians, (and such are the times in which almost all 
Christians live,) no one will be popular, or much extolled 
or caressed, unless he becomes a partisan, and promotes the 
interest and cause of some one of the contending parties. 
He who would steer a middle course, doing justice to all, 
and injury to none ; who, as the case commonly is, sees 
something good and something wrong in every party or 
sect, must hope, at the most, only to escape censure, and to 
have the answer of a good conscience. As he will not go to 
the extremes of any party and advocate what they chiefly 
aim at, they will expect little from him ; he therefore is, of 
course, neglected of all. And happy, as he ought to view 
it, is such neglect. In a world like this, if it will but let us 
alone, if it will but let us quietly pass through it, walking 
in the straight-forward course of our duty, with this should 
a good man be satisfied. Though I have probably been as 
decided in my opinions as other men are, I have from my 
youth determined to be of no party in politics or in secta- 
rianism. In regard to the former, it is, in my judgment, 
better for the clergy, and for their parishes, and indeed for 
their country, that they should leave civil government and 
the management of public temporal concerns to the laity. 
The history of the world shows that politics and state affairs 
have seldom been well managed when in the hands of priests. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 103 

Their business is with a kingdom which is not of this world ; 
and they are engaged in a warfare whose weapons are not 
carnal." 

As to the influence of his entrance on the Episcopate 
upon his religious feelings, character, and labors, it is a 
remark of the Rev. Dr. Crocker, who was his colleague 
from Rhode Island in the Electing Convention at Boston in 
1810, that, "to all who knew him intimately, and observed 
him carefully, it was obvious that his providential promo- 
tion was the means of bringing home to his heart, with a 
power which he had never before felt, the conviction that he 
was an appointed instrument in the hands of God for the 
good of his people. His public discourses assumed a 
warmth, an unction, an authority, an evangelical character, 
that had not previously belonged to them. And it should 
never be forgotten, that the extraordinary revival in the 
summer of 1812, one year after his consecration, was the 
fruit of his growing faithfulness." 

Of this remarkable event, the Bishop has left us in his 
auto-biography his own simple account. He says : 

"In the year 1812, there was in Bristol an awakened 
attention to the subject of religion, which was very won- 
derful, and the like of which I had never before witnessed. 
It commenced among the members of my parish, when no 
such thing was looked for, nor indeed thought of. No un- 
usual efforts had been made with any view to such an excite- 
ment. My administering of confirmation in the parish a 
few months previously had not improbably some effect. 
My recent ordination to the Episcopate was the means of 
awakening my own mind to more serious thoughts of duly 
as a minister of Christ ; and in consequence, I had. no 
doubt, with more earnest zeal preached i Jesus Christ and 
him crucified.' The change which I first noticed was the 



104 MEMOIR OP 

appearance of increased seriousness in the congregation, 
especially on leaving the Church after service. There was 
little or no laughing, or merry salutation among the people ; 
neither talking of worldly things. After the benediction, 
and a minute of private prayer, they retired, silent and 
thoughtful. Some soon began to express a religious con- 
cern respecting their spiritual state, and were anxious to 
know ' what they should do to be saved.' 

"In consequence of this awakened and increasing inquiry, 
I began to meet with them one or two evenings in the week, 
not only that we might unite in praying that they might be 
led into the way of truth, and enjoy the comforts of hope, 
and of peace in believing, but that I might save time to 
myself and them by conversing at the same time with a 
number who were in the same state of mind. I soon found 
that the number of such inquirers had increased to about 
thirty ; and in a very short time the awakening was general 
through the town, and very wonderful. 

" Very much to my regret the number of communicants 
had hitherto been small, but about forty ; and yet, notwith- 
standing the very zealous efforts of those of other denomi- 
nations to draw the converts to their respective communions, 
a large number of adults (forty-four) were baptized, and a 
hundred were added to my communion, of whom more 
than half had before been accustomed to attend worship in 
other places, or in no place. These converts were not 
encouraged in ranting, or in any enthusiastic raptures, nor 
did they incline to any extravagance, but gladly hearkened to 
the ' words of truth and soberness,' and very few of them 
afterward i turned from the holy commandment delivered 
unto them.' " 

The Bishop's daughter, Mrs. Collins, to whom reference 
has already been made, died the 29th of December, 1811 ; 
and his son Viets, who, as we have seen, went to Cuba for his 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 105 

health, survived no longer than May 1st, 1812. Yet, not- 
withstanding the recentness and the pressure of these afflic- 
tions, and though God was manifestly and wonderfully 
blessing his labors in his own parish, he felt it his duty to 
fulfill his engagements to his diocese. He was the servant 
of all the churches now ; and therefore, in the very midst of 
the awakened interest of which he has given us an account, 
he departed on his second Episcopal tour through the four 
States. Still the blessing; which he had seen falling on his 
parish ministry continued to descend ; and after his anxi- 
ously-expected return he performed the glad office of 
gathering in its rich, ripe fruits, 

" Joyous as when the reapers bear 
Their harvest treasures home." 

Of the condition of his parish, and of the progress of the 
sacred movement during his absence, he received at Middle- 
bury, Vermont, the following account from the late Bishop 
of Rhode-Island, who was at that time pursuing his theo- 
logical studies in Bristol, as a candidate for orders under 
Bishop Griswold. I give the most important part of the 
letter : 

* * * * * " Since your departure the 

engagedness of your people in the good cause has appar- 
ently increased. There have been some new instances of 
awakening ; some who were slightly impressed are now 
mourning in bitterness for their sins, and some who were 
lately 'heavy laden' with the burden of guilt have entered 
into the promised ' rest,' and are rejoicing in the love of 
God !' (After mentioning the names of many individuals, 
the letter proceeds :) "At our last meeting we had indeed 
a solemn but joyful season. A great number were present, 
ten or twelve of whom were dissolved in tears and crying 
for mercy. I have no doubt that the work of God is extend- 
ing and increasing both in power and in purity. Nothing 

5* 



106 MEMOIR OF 

like fanaticism has been manifested among our people ; but 
a most earnest hungering and thirsting for the bread and the 
waters of life eternal. I can not express my own impa- 
tience and the anxiety of the people for your return. I fear 
much lest the good work should be checked among us for 
want of an experienced pastor to encourage and promote it. 
At a time like the present, when God is shedding forth his 
Spirit, opening the eyes of the blind, and extorting from the 
hearts of many the cry of the awakened jailer, (' What shall 
I do to be saved V) I most sensibly feel my weakness and 
insufficiency for the work to which I am called." * * * 

The influence of the events of the summer of 1812, on 
the parish of St. Michael's, Bristol, is felt to the present day, 
both in its spiritual and in its temporal condition. Precious 
fruits put forth on that occasion are still ripening there ; and 
as we shall see, other seasons like it, and with like precious 
fruits, have since been added. 

The closing portion of the Bishop's auto-biography gives 
us some idea of the abundance of his labors during his resi- 
dence in Bristol : 

"While in Bristol," he writes, " I delivered several courses 
of lectures : one of about eighty or ninety on the four Gos- 
pels in the way of a harmony. After having finished them 
I was much urged by my hearers to publish them. But 
though I had reason to hope that through the blessing of God 
they were not a little useful to my congregation, and to 
many others who attended church in the evening to hear 
them, yet as they were necessarily prepared in much haste, 
and I could not find time (having then a large school, and 
preaching three times a Sunday) to correct and improve 
them, they were none of them published, and have since 
been destroyed with many hundreds of other manuscript 
discourses. In preparing them I made some use of the liar- 






BISHOP GRISWOLD. 107 

monies of Bishops Newcome and Macknight, of Bishop 
Porteus' Lectures on Matthew, of Hunter's Sacred Biogra- 
phy, and of several commentators and other writers ; but 
no use, I trust, which was inconsistent with a claim to ori- 
ginality. I have already burnt, or otherwise destroyed, 
about twelve or fourteen hundred of my manuscript ser- 
mons, not because less my own composition than those which 
remain, but because I had more than I could ever use in 
future, -and because they would all probably be useless after 
my decease. I have in many instances declined giving my 
sermons for the press when requested, from observing how 
little such publications are read, and how soon, like old 
newspapers, they are thrown away. In the present age, 
when light reading for amusement is so much in vogue, 
good sermons are but little read, though published in ele- 
gant volumes, which seems to be almost necessary to their 
being read at all. 

" I delivered also a series of discourses, thirty -three in 
number, on the Acts of the Apostles ; about twelve on the 
Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, which I would gladly find 
time better to digest and complete ; one on each of the ten 
commandments, to which I added five on our Lord's sum- 
mary of the Decalogue ; several on the Catechism, and the 
Apostle's Creed, and on each chapter of the Revelation of 
St, John. 

"A celebrated author has observed that Calvin was wise 
in not writing upon the Revelation ; and the more celebrated 
Voltaire has thought fit to say that ' Sir Isaac Newton wrote 
his comment upon the Revelation to console mankind for 
the great superiority which he had over them in other 
respects.' But I considered that One who is much wiser 
and of infinitely better authority has said, ' Blessed is he 
that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecj , 
and keep those things that are written therein/ Rev. 1 : 8, 
With this text in view I endeavored, in a praetieal way, to 



108 MEMOIR OF 

instruct my congregation to hear to edification what can 
already be understood of those prophecies, and to keep the 
things written therein. But in preparing those discourses, 
though the preparation was hastily done, light seemed to 
break upon my mind, and interesting views of what was 
there predicted, which I long hoped to find time to digest 
and arrange into some regular form. That time, however, 
has never been found. 

" I also delivered a course of seventy lectures on the five 
books of Moses. In all these I had a general text in view, 
the words of our Saviour, ' Search the Scriptures ; for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they which 
testify of me,' particularly noticing what we learn from those 
Scriptures of Christ and his work of redemption. Such a 
plan, w r ell executed, would, in my judgment, be a valuable 
acquisition to our Theological Libraries. 

" These courses of lectures were all delivered Sunday 
evenings, and so far as I can judge have been among the 
most efficacious of my pulpit labors. During the services, 
such portions of Scripture were read as were thought most 
appropriate to the subject respectively of each discourse." 

After reading such paragraphs as those which have now 
been transcribed, and with which, amidst many regrets, 
we take leave of the modest Bishop's auto-biographical 
sketch of himself, it is difficult to say which, at the outset, 
would have been the more desirable, that he should become 
the constantly-engrossed supervisor of his parish and his 
diocese, spending all his time in gathering, uniting, cement- 
ing, and instrumen tally vivifying the elements of that ex- 
tended ecclesiastical body which was placed under his care ; 
or that he should have it in his power to follow the strong 
native bent of his inclinations as a man of reading and 
research — to become the patient as well as the ardent stu- 
dent, the productive as well as the profound theologian, the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 109 

voluminous as well as the luminous author ; and thus, 
instead of committing to the flames bushels of manuscript 
evidently rich in the rudiments of valuable truth and know- 
ledge, to pour the light which gathered upon his own mind 
over the mind of his age and over the libraries of the Church 
in all coming ages. 

That the estimate here implied of his ability to bless the 
world not beyond, but as one among the rich and ripe 
scholars of the Church, is not extravagant, enough, I trust, 
in the foregoing pages been said to show. However 
little the world may have been aware of it, that quiet, 
modest, humble Bishop drew from his German ancestry so 
large an inspiration of the German industry, aye, and of the 
German genius tor scholarship that, had he been even mode- 
rately able to indulge his inclinations, free as he was by 
divine grace from German errors, he could not have tailed 
of leaving behind him. as the fruit of his long life of study, 
some of the most precious as well as abundant contributions 
to the theological learning of the Church. There is no dis- 
position to claim for him or ascribe to him the attributes of 
uncommonly dazzling and inventive genius. Evidently 
his place never could have been among the few suns which 
hang so gloriously in the firmament of letters. Xor could 
it ever have been among the lesser satellites of the system. 
But it would have been among the planets, which while 
they gather most do most give forth the light, and which 
while they receive most warmth do also produce most 
fruit for the sustenance of spiritual and intellectual life. 
His genius lay not in splendid invention, but in diligent 
accumulation and rich acquisition ; in luminous illustration 
and in useful production. The few writings which he has 
already given to the world, pure in style and sometimes 
beautiful in ornament, show what he might have been and 
what he might have done in the walks of scholarship. Nqr 
the world vet know what he actually was in I 



110 MEMOIR OF 

respect, notwithstanding the unusual hindrances which lay 
in the way of his studies. His best labors as a theologian 
lay after all not in his Episcopal sermons and addresses, as 
he delivered them on his numerous official tours through his 
diocese, but in the parish, where he so long and so modestly 
dispensed the fruits of his midnight studies, beyond the 
notice of this world's eye. 

That this last remark is not without foundation will be 
manifest from the following tribute from the pen of one 
who lived long and intimately by the Bishop's side, sitting 
under his weekly ministry, studying with him for the work 
of an evangelist, knowing him amidst all the soul-trying, 
heart-revealing intimacies and incidents of private life, and 
afterwards succeeding him as rector in his favorite parish of 
St, Michael's, Bristol. 

:< I can not close this statement," he observes, " without 
bearing the little tribute of my unfeigned respect and undis- 
sembled affection for the truly apostolical and evangelical 
Bishop Griswold. To a very high order of human talent 
he joins the profoundest and most comprehensive acquaint- 
ance with Scriptural divinity. I have heard some of the 
greatest preachers on either side of the Atlantic, including 
the mighty Horsley on the one and the giant Mason on 
the other, but I never sat under a minister from whom I 
received so much and so varied instruction in the word of 
God. I scarcely ever open the Bible without being conscious 
of reading it by the reflected light of his clear intelligence. 
And above all, he crowns and consecrates his great talents 
and extensive learning with a most catholic and Christian 
spirit, which is for ever breathing the words of wisdom from 
the lips of love. He has, in very deed, been a blessed 
instrument in the hands of his Divine Master of awakening 
his perishing fellow-sinners from their natural death-sleep 
in trespasses and guilt ; alike in the place privileged to enjoy 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. Ill 

his fixed residence, and throughout his diocese, wherever he 
has had an opportunity of scattering the bread of life. That 
great and awful day only, which shall reveal the secrets of 
every human heart, will be able to disclose how many souls 
he has been permitted and empowered to turn unto righte- 
ousn 

•• In hi f and hourly walk and conver- life and 

conduct, he exemplifies the blessed doctrines which he s«;» 
ably. thfully, sc ingly proclaims in the service of 

the sanctuary. In unaffected simplicity, meekness, and holi- 

- in thought, word, and deed : in the conscientious 
fearless discharge of the duties of his high and responsible 
office ; in the unmeasured benignity of his Christian charity 
and love for all who bear the impress and image of our 
common nature, that nature winch is infinitely ennobled by 
being united with the Godhead in the ever-blessed and ador- 
able person of our once crucified but now ascended and glo- 
rified Redeemer, he is second to no one of all those worthies 
who. in the apostolic and primitive ages of Christianity. 
counted their lives nothing in comparison with preac. 
the doctrines of the cross, the doctrines of grace." 

Tu this testimony of Mr. Bristed may be added similar 

bnony from another quarter. 
A lady of great piety and intelligence, wh much in 

family before the d< - his first wife, and therefore 
thoroughly acquainted with him. upon being requested by 
the present r o furnish him with her recollections of 

the 1 o -' his ministry and the estimate in 

which he was commonly held in Bri>t«»l. says: u Il H - 

Lark then often g him. that th - one 

imen of And in i her 

account, she writes thus : "I must take this opportunit 
than:: . Sir. for the - __ • fthia Elec- 

tions; it i vividly before 



112 MEMOIR OF 

ter. The nearer the inspection, the more angelic the like- 
ness." 

The first Convention of the Eastern Diocese which was 
held after Bishop Griswold's consecration, assembled at 
Providence, September 30, 1812. His address to the Con- 
vention is remarkable alike for brevity and modesty. He 
evidently started on his course of duty with the feeling that 
it did not become him, while young in office, to put himself 
forth in any labored production ; with the determination not 
to assume the exercise of an influence which he had not yet 
acquired ; and on the principle of letting his actions rather 
than his words define his ecclesiastical position, and inter- 
pret his religious views. One can hardly read such an ad- 
dress, delivered on such an occasion, without feeling that it 
was peculiarly characteristic of the man who, on a different 
occasion, remarked, " Words cost but little, and are often 
worth no more than they cost." 

The feeling has often been expressed by his clergy, that 
the characteristic modesty of Bishop Griswold, and his ap- 
parent reluctance to put forth his influence in forwarding 
great leading measures of policy in his Diocese, detracted 
much from his true usefulness. But the longer I reflect on 
this subject the more strongly am I persuaded of the injust- 
ice which such a feeling did him. The truth is, (to take a 
somewhat different view of this subject from that which was 
taken a few pages back,) it was his modesty and his appar- 
ent reluctance to act in many matters, that kept the centri- 
fugal parts of his Diocese together, till, at his demise, they 
were all ready in strength and experience to stand up at 
once, four well-braced and well-organized Dioces< g, with their 
well-furnished and efficient Bishops, instead of one. What 
appeared to be reluctance to put forth his influence was, in 
fact, less that, than a wise caution under the circumstances 
in which he found himself placed. He felt his own position 
better than the clergy of the separate States could feel it fop 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 113 

him. While they were thinkiug of their separate State in- 
terests, longing for their more rapid advancement, and per- 
haps pondering the question how soon they might be called 
to elect from among themselves their own independent 
Bishop, he was feeling the difficulty of presiding in harmony 
over such separately tending elements, and the almost im- 
possibility of either originating or infusing life into any 
general measures for their increased prosperity, or even 
into any State measures for that end, consistently with the 
relation which he bore to the whole body. In such a state 
of things it had been easy for him to put that whole body 
into intense action ; but it would have been the action of 
convulsions, not that of health. On the whole, when it is 
remembered that after the Eastern Diocese began to meet 
annually, Bishop Griswold had five conventions to attend 
where other Bishops have but one, and for the greater part 
of the time a parish to care for besides ; that he had to com- 
bine and guide the movements of a complex whole, while 
the clergy and the measures of the separate parts were 
often tending away from general and gathering themselves 
around particular and sometimes conflicting interests ; and 
that into which part soever of his diocese he went, he felt 
the presence of a something that was instinctively, without 
special design, working itself up into a sort of rival influence 
with his own ; it will be seen that his position was full of 
peculiar difficulties, and called for the constant exercise not 
only of all that wonderful industry, but also of all that un- 
common meekness, prudence, and wisdom for which he was 
so remarkable. And when, moreover, it is considered that 
as a parish minister, few among us have ever been more 
largely successful, more richly blessed than he; and that, as 
a Bishop), he began, in 1811, to watch over a few scattered 
parishes, feeble and " ready to die," and yet left them in 
L 843, multiplied to an hundred, distributed into live fullj 
organized Dioceses, and ready to support four a- til e Bishop -, 



114 MEMOIR OF 

it may well be doubted whether the evidence of his useful- 
ness could have been more full and complete. 

The difficulty of obtaining clergy for his parishes pressed 
heavily on all the early Episcopate of Bishop Griswold. 
His chief anxiety was to get men fit for the work. What 
qualities, both religious and literary, he sought in his clergy, 
may be seen in the following extract from a letter to the 
Rev. Mr. Bronson, of Vermont : 

" We ought to exert ourselves more in selecting and 
training young men for the ministry. We shall not find, 
at present, a sufficient number from our colleges. And it is 
unhappily the fact, that too many of those who condescend 
to take holy orders expect to live in ease and affluence ; to 
find Churches already organized ivith good livings. We 
have none such to bestow on any. We need laborers pos- 
sessed of apostolic zeal, who are willing to plant before they 
reap ; who are willing to go into the spiritual wilderness 
and cultivate for themselves; who, duly impressed with the 
importance and duties of the sacred ministry, are content to 
* spend and be spent' for God's glory and the salvation of 
men ; and who of course c seek first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness, 5 trusting that he will add whatever is 
necessary for the comfort of this life. One such is worth 
twenty drones in the sacred ministry. Such, indeed, are 
most likely to succeed in obtaining a comfortable living, for 
they have the promise of Christ himself to rely upon. If 
you find any who are likely to be of this description, they 
ought to be encouraged to turn their attention to tine minis- 
try, and assisted in attaining the necessary qualifications. 
These last are not to be neglected. It is important that our 
clerical body be made respectable for learning and talents, 
as well as useful in piety and zeal.'* 

The above sentiments were not recorded bv a man who 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 115 

preached one thing and practised another. He did not say 
to the laborers amidst the real toils and sacrifices of the 
ministry, " Go work in the Lord's vineyard ; " but placing 
himself in their fore-front, and showing them the manner of 
their day-labor, he said, "Come, follow me, and let us bear 
together the burden and heat of the day." 



116 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BRIEF NOTICES OF THE EASTERN DIOCESE, AND OF INCIDENTS IN THE 
LIFE OF ITS BISHOP, AS CONNECTED THEREWITH. — FIRST CALL TO 
SALEM. 

From the time of Bishop Griswold's consecration, the re- 
moteness of his place of residence from Boston, the chief 
ecclesiastical centre of his diocese, the place whence the prin- 
cipal routes of travel diverge, and from which, therefore, he 
could with the greatest ease, and at the least expense, visit 
the various parishes under his supervision — the place, too, 
where the main strength of the diocese lay, and at which he 
might most readily gather round himself all needful influ- 
ences of counsel and cooperation in his labors — was seen to 
be a serious inconvenience, and the wish was generally felt 
and often expressed, that he might have a parish, if not in 
Boston itself, at least in its immediate vicinity. At the 
opening of the year 1813, an opportunity for the gratifying 
of this wish was offered in a unanimous call to the Rector- 
ship of St. Peter's Church, Salem. This call was after some 
months repeated, and twice afterwards urged most importu- 
nately by a committee, of which Judge Story was chairman. 

But, notwithstanding the urgency of the call and the rea- 
sons, independent of it, for his removal, the Bishop found it 
so difficult, if not impossible, to leave Bristol, that he finally 
sent the committee in Salem a negative answer. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 117 

About this time, also, he received from different quarters 
letters which spoke in tones of great fear and distrust of sur- 
rounding denominations of Christians. In these letters, so 
far as they expressed or implied apprehensions of danger 
from the growth and prevalence of Socinian errors in New- 
England, the Bishop deeply sympathized ; but if they were 
intended to deny the character and privileges of the Church 
to other bodies of New-England Christians, it is not probable 
that they met with any very cordial response from him. 
The Bishop was every inch an Episcopalian, but he never 
thought that the Church of Christ can not, in any sense, exist 
without Episcopacy, any more than he thought that the 
human body ceases to be a body when it has lost its right 
hand, but has still head and heart united in right relations, 
and both of them sound, healthy, and active. He saw and 
felt the dangers to which other denominations are exposed, 
but he considered them Christian Churches, and rejoiced in 
all the good of which they were instruments. His feelings 
on this subject were, in his own peculiar way, expressed in 
connection with the following incident : As he was one day 
riding through Massachusetts in the progress of one of his 
Episcopal visitations, and in company, I believe, with Mr. 
Strong of Greenfield, he passed many houses of worship be- 
longing to the orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and 
Methodists, but not one belonging to Episcopalians. The 
fact elicited remark, in the course of which the Bishop ob- 
I. "As we have passed along, I have been thinking 
what the people of our State would do if they could not find 
religion except by seeking it in our Church." 

The great difficulty of obtaining clergy for the vacant 
parishes of his diocese made it necessary to employ candi- 
dates for orders, as lay-readers, in their stead. The peculiar 
prejudice of New-England people against mere reading, and 
the great desire to hear them preach, that they might judge 
rehand of their qualifications for the ministry. I 






118 MEMOIR OF 



by the practice among the Congregational Churches of licens 
ing those not yet ordained, and a similar custom in the 
Episcopal Church previous to the passage of the 19th Canon 
of 1 808, created a strong temptation under which candidates 
for orders were repeatedly led, in violation of that canon, to 
assume something of the ministerial character. These facts, 
it seems, at length attracted notice, and called forth an offi- 
cial expression of the Bishop's views on the subject. The 
following communication from him to one of his candidates 
is quite characteristic, and shows that, though he did not 
place ecclesiastical and Scriptural canons on the same ground 
of authority, yet he knew how as well to enforce the former 
as to expound the latter : 

"Bristol, July 19th. 
" Dear Sir : 

"Your letter of the 15th inst. I have just now received, 
and am set down to return you an answer. 

" Your subject is the difficulties of complying with the 
restrictions of Canon 19th. Without any reference to its 
merits, or the expediency of such a rule, it would be suffi- 
cient to observe, that I have no power to alter or dispense 
with it, but am bound by it no less than yourself. But give 
me leave to add that nothing which I have ever seen or 
heard has more clearly evinced the propriety of that canon 
than your letter. 

" As to what you say of 4 a number accused of irregular- 
ity,' I can only answer that I had not heard of the accusation, 
though I fear, from what you write, that there is too much 
ground for one. I have no recollections that the canon has 
-been violated in my presence, or that any regular complaint 
against any one for such violation has been made ; and in 
your supposition of my previous knowledge of the irregular- 
ities which you report, you are much mistaken. 

" Respecting the custom in Boston and what has been 
heretofore practised I would briefly state, what probably you 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 119 

already know, that there has been, among the clergy of this 
diocese, some difference of opinion respecting the construc- 
tion of that canon, and it was by some deemed expedient to 
postpone a rigorous enforcement of it till the meeting of the 
General Convention, when its true intention might be ascer- 
tained. Tins has since been done. No doubt can now 
remain with any one. 

•- We do not question your being 'entitled to a gown. 5 
The canon only forbids your wearing it when performing 
divine service : and the reason of this prohibition I should 
suppose you must know, though what you next add implies 
the contrary. You assign as a reason for going into the 
pulpit, its being less sacred than other places, as though the 
object of the canon were to prevent the candidate's profaning 
the place in which he officiates. Can you, then, be ignorant 
that the design of the canon is to prevent the evil (and 'tis 
no small or uncommon one) of the people's making no dis- 
tinction between clergymen and lay-readers ? 

u Respecting what you say. or mean to insinuate, from the 
fact that certain candidates wore gowns at the consecration 
of St. Mary's Church, Newton, 'tis sufficient to observe that, 
if the whole congregation had seen fit to appear in gowns, it 
would have been no infringement of the letter, whatever it 
might have been of the spirit, of the 19th canon. 

"I rejoice at your declaration that, for yourself, you have 
no hostility to the restriction, for there is reason to fear that 
some might be actuated, in such case, by a vanity of making 
a clerical appearance, totally repugnant to that meek? 
truth, and simplicity which are most essentially necessary 
to the Christian character. 

Vs to your apprehensions of an unfavorable effect on the 
Chinch. I think that such effect may be prevented by a fair 
explanation of the matter, being careful to suggest nothing 
to prejudice the people's mind-. 

■• Vcu speak of my being surprised at hearing of a candi- 



120 MEMOIR OF 

date's procuring a gown. I acknowledge myself, indeed, 
truly surprised at the following words from your letter: 'I 

fear the people of Church will not consent to hear 

preaching from the desk, and pay so dear for it as they now 

do. 1 If these things are so — -if the parishioners of 

Church think that you are authorized to preach, and that you 
do preach, and if they are paying you a salary on that sup- 
position, you certainly must see the propriety of the canon 
in question. You ought long since to have informed them 
better. To suffer them to remain in ignorance on such a 
point, and still more to do any thing to confirm them in it, 
would be, on many accounts, very unjustifiable. What is it 
short of profiting by deception ? I request you now to inform 

the Vestry and Wardens of — Church, (by showing 

them this letter or otherwise,) that candidates for orders, so 
called in our Church, are considered students in divinity ; 
that their reading prayers and a, printed sermon occasionally 
is an indulgence for their convenience ; that their business is 
to prepare for examination, when, if they are found qualified, 
and desire it, they may be regularly licensed to preach ; and 
that, at present, you have no more authority to preach than 
any one of the congregation. 

" I have great respect as well as affection for the people in 

— , and am sure that their good sense will teach them 

that 'tis reasonable (in our Church as it is in other Churches) 
that a candidate should go through with his regular studies 
and examinations before he is licensed to officiate as a minis- 
ter of Christ. Can you believe that these enlightened people 
will blame me for not sending one into their pulpit to preach 
whom I have never examined, who has never offered himself 
to me for examination, and of whose qualifications I am 
almost totally ignorant I I desire particularly that Messrs. 

anc l ma y see this letter, that we may prevent 

these apprehended evils. Let these worthy gentlemen know 
the rules of our Church, and the reasons of them, and they 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 121 

will cheerfully acquiesce ; and if they prefer you as their 
future minister, they will willingly wait the time of your 
necessary preparation for the sacred office. 

" You state that the prospects of the Church in 

were fair before this prohibition. But you can not surely 
be ignorant that the same prohibition, without the least 
alteration, has existed for six years, and long before you 
offered yourself as a candidate. Your hopes, expressed, of 
organizing that Church, I do not understand, seeing that it 
has been organized for many years. Should you, through 
the Divine blessing, be made the instrument of its growth 
in piety and numbers, we shall rejoice and bless God. 
What you mean by your intention of being ' governed 
entirely by the feeling of the people,' and your willingness 
to submit to the regulations of the Church, so far as you 
can do it with propriety, will, with some other things, 
require explanation. 

"As to your receiving orders within the year, the Bishops 
with whom I consulted were clearly of opinion that it is not 
in such case admissible ; besides, as I once told you, it is 
scarce possible, with the closest application, that you can 
go through with the requisite studies in a less time. 

" You express a willingness to i make any personal sacri- 
fices' for the benefit of that people, which is very laudable ; 
but I must charitably suppose, though against the most 
obvious sense, that you do not reckon forbearing to wear a 
gown and appear in the pulpit, as one among the number 
of such sacrifices. From what Christian motives could you 
wish to do it % Should any, as you fear, leave our Church 
on this account, it will be a great grief, and add to the pain- 
ful cares which are daily accumulating upon me. The 
Lord's will be done. I desire the prayers of every member 
of our Church, that I may be guided by his wisdom, and 
faithful to my duty. But I trust in God, thai no pious 
Christian, who is from principle attached to our ( 'hun-li, will 



122 MEMOIR OF 

leave it for so very trivial an objection, or from a disap- 
pointment of the vanity of appearing as a clergyman before 
he is one. That God may direct your heart and your 
studies to better things than a vain show, and prepare you 
to become an able, faithful, and successful minister of His 
word, and true to your duty, is the prayer of 

" Yours, affectionately, 

"Alexander V. Griswold." 

If there was ever a case in which authority was used 
without arrogance, or keen but holy rebuke administered to 
one who evidently needed it, I think we have it in the above 
letter ; and if the candidate who received it was not made 
better by it, he gave, to himself at least, good evidence 
that, for whatever other calling he was qualified, he was 
mistaken in supposing himself called and qualified to enter 
the ministry of the Gospel. 

To another, lately ordained, and of a different temper, 
the Bishop wrote in this very different strain : 

" That you are sensible of the vast importance of the min- 
isterial office, and the awful responsibilities of a Christian 
Ambassador, is much to be commended. Let it humble 
but not discourage you. Let us devoutly look to Him who 
alone ' is sufficient for these things.' The Lord, we trust, 
has already blessed your labors, and shown you the way to 
further usefulness in his holy vineyard. Go on, then, with 
confidence that he who has begun a good work in you will 
finish it. Improve the talents given you. ' Do the work 
of an Evangelist ; make full proof of thy ministry ;' and 
remember that ' they that have used the office of a Deacon 
well, purchase to themselves a good degree, and great bold- 
ness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.' 

" Your friend and brother, 

"Alexander V. Griswold. 

"The Rev. Titus Strong/' 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 123 

This letter was written in view of Mr. Strong's ordina- 
tion as Presbyter ; and it is a model of fatherly affection 
and of apostolical faithfulness. It shows that its writer 
knew how to commend as well as how to rebuke ; how to 
encourage as well as how to instruct. 

I have already alluded to the desire felt by many that the 
Bishop should reside nearer the centre of his Diocese, and 
to the result of the effort which was made to induce his 
removal to Salem. In the spring of the year 1816, a fur- 
ther effort, originating in the same cause, was made to 
secure his settlement in Cambridge. The small but import- 
ant parish in that town was now vacant ; but being unable 
of itself to support the Bishop as its rector, the friends of 
the Church, in and about Boston, took measures to secure 
such a salary as would be sufficient for that purpose ; and 
on the 21st of April, Judge Tyng wrote to the Bishop in 
their behalf, and by way of preparing him for a call from 
the vestry. His answer was as follows : 

" Bristol, May 3d, 1816. 
" Dear Sir : 

u I had the honor of receiving your favor of the 2 1st of 
April, and return you cordial thanks for the kind and inter- 
esting information which it contains. 

" That the Church in Cambridge is very small, I had sup- 
posed ; that more vigorous measures are in operation for 
its future prosperity is a subject of gratulation. May the 
Lord give them success. That those measures have not 
been adopted with unanimity is, however, very much to be 
regretted. 

u Respecting my removal to Cambridge, I shall affect no 
reserve, but answer with that frankness of communication 
which both the manner and the subject of your letter 

: re. I consider myself as devoted to tlu service of th 
churches in this Diocese, and bound certainly to do what- 



124 MEMOIR OF 

ever shall be in my power to promote their interest and 
prosperity. Nor can it be denied, that a more central situa- 
tion would apparently enable me to perform the duties of a 
diocesan with more facility and convenience, both to myself 
and to the churches. Were I less engaged in parochial 
duties, and in a situation to bestow more of my time in 
visiting the various parts of the Diocese, my time, we may 
reasonably suppose, would be more profitably bestowed. It 
must also be allowed, that Cambridge is sufficiently central 
and convenient. But still, to my removal thither there are 
several obstacles, and some of serious consideration. That 
of the least weight is my private interest, which, from the 
peculiarity of my situation, must sufFer very considerably 
by a removal from this place ; nor can I reasonably expect 
to find another situation so convenient for my family as the 
one which I now possess. But of these things I am sensible 
little account should be made. 

"A point of much more serious importance to my feel- 
ings is the separating from a people with whom for many 
years I have lived in the most perfect harmony, and whose 
very great and uniform kindness to me and mine have 
engaged me to them with the most tender ties of gratitude 
and affection. Should it be urged in reply, that private 
feelings ought no more than private interests to interfere in 
a matter of more public concern, I have to add very serious 
apprehensions, that the Church here in Bristol would suffer 
in consequence of my leaving them. Being already bound 
to them as their minister, my heart revolts from a separa- 
tion against their consent ; nor would it consist with my 
duty to leave them unsupplied. 

" Supposing that they may be satisfactorily supplied with 
another minister, it would remain only to consider my pros- 
pects of a maintenance in Cambridge. To those generous 
friends who have offered to contribute for my benefit, as 
also to those who have already done it. I am under the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 125 

greatest obligations; and it is my daily prayer that the 
Lord, who is able, may bless and reward them. You can, 
better, perhaps, than myself, judge what will be the ordi- 
nary expense of a large family in that place ; not less, I 
suppose, than in Boston. To myself, it is less painful to 
suffer almost any privation than to burthen my friends. 
We, who are dependent on the gratuitous contributions of 
Christian people, should be content with such style of living 
as they judge fit and becoming. I have little doubt, while 
the Lord shall preserve my health, of being able to clothe 
and feed my family with the sum which you mention. But, 
whether it would be possible, with the most rigid economy, 
to live in such a manner as would there be thought respecta- 
ble and decent, my friends in that vicinity are best able to 
judge. Should it be the Lord's will that I reside among 
them, my chief concern in these things will be, not to dis- 
grace them ; my careful endeavor, that nothing bestowed 
upon me be needlessly wasted ; and my confidence, that 
they will not expect what is impossible, nor be offended 
with a plainness and frugality which must be necessary. 

" The time, we may hope, is not far distant, though pro- 
bably beyond my day, when the funds of our Church shall 
place the Bishop of this Diocese in a situation for greater 
usefulness. Till such .time arrives, the most retired situa- 
tion for his residence is perhaps the best. But this must be 
as the will of the Lord and the voice of his people shall 
direct. My desire is to spend my few remaining days 
among the kind friends who here surround me ; but I hold 
myself in readiness to go whithersoever duty and the good 
of the churches may call me. And whatever shall be deter- 
mined, of one thing be assured, that 

" I am, with affection and respect, 

" Your friend and humble servant, 

"Alexander V. Griswold. 

" Dudley A. Tyng, Esq." 



126 MEMOIR OF 

The apprehension expressed in this letter, that his private 
interests would suffer by a removal from Bristol, arose, it 
is presumed, simply from the necessity to which such a 
removal would subject him, of selling at a sacrifice the 
house and garden in Bristol, which he had contrived by his 
little savings to purchase, and which, with his skill and 
industry in horticulture, were vastly more available to the 
support of his family than they could be made by either 
sale or rent. The letter is valuable, chiefly as showing the 
modest views which he entertained of the style becoming a 
Bishop in the Church of Christ. He desired, indeed, what 
would not disgrace the friends among whom he might be 
called to move. But of the style which men of the world 
affect, he thought little, and for it cared less. He deemed 
that the honor and dignity of the Bishopric were best sus- 
tained by holiness of life, and a self-sacrificing devotion to 
its duties. He was ready himself to practise that self- 
denial which he recommended to his clergy, glad of the 
opportunity thus given, as he suggests in a letter to one of 
them much straitened in his means, "to evince that our 
object is not to shear the flock of Christ, but to feed it." 

Upon the receipt of this letter by Judge Tyng, the parish 
in Cambridge called him to its rectorship. But though he 
was evidently disposed to remove, he found the difficulties 
so great, and the opposition on the part of his Bristol 
parishioners so strong, that after long suspense he finally 
declined the call. 

In the year 1814, the Bishop, in addition to his address 
to the Convention of his Diocese assembled in Portsmouth. 
New-Hampshire, delivered a charge to his clergy, noticed 
in the journal of that Convention as " a solemn and excel- 
lent charge. 9 ' This was subsequently published^ with M A 
Pastoral Letter' prefixed. 

[A considerable portion of this pastoral letter and charge 
was on the subject of the missionary duty of our Church. It 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 12? 

was among the earliest, if .not the earliest, public and official 
appeals to the Church on this subject. And it affords one 
proof among many of the practical influence of that system 
of truth into which the Bishop had experimentally been led, 
and of its tendency to produce activity and zeal in the ser- 
vice of Christ. As the part which Bishop Griswold modestly 
bore in our early missionary organization is not generally 
known, it is an act of simple justice to insert here that por- 
tion of the charge (published entire in the Appendix to the 
Memoir) which relates to missionary work. It must have 
been like the peal of a trumpet to those who heard it ; and 
its solemn expostulation is not less needed now. After 
alluding to a falling-off in the annual collections recom- 
mended by the Convention, he thus proceeds with hie 
appeal :] 

" Has this falling-off been occasioned by the pressure of 
the times ? Or is it owing, brethren, to our own remissness 
in not setting before our congregations the importance of 
the duty, and the great benevolence of the object ? We 
surely can not suppose that the people of our flocks are 
less liberal than other Christians. The testimonies of 
a generous and charitable spirit, so great, and so often 
repeated, which we have seen and received, forbid us to 
ascribe this failure to sordid principles. Is it not rather to 
be feared that we have not faithfully called them to this 
duty ; that we have not duly set before them its import- 
ance ? Have we labored, as we ought, to awaken in them 
a spirit of love for the souls of men ; a desire to evangelize 
the world; to extend the Redeemer's kingdom into distant 
lands, and to communicate the consolations of the everlast- 
ing Gospel to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of 
death'? Is it not the fact that our own hearts are cold in 
this glorious work? Are we not too indifferent to the spi- 
ritual famine by which our fellow-ereatures are daily per- 



128 MEMOIR OF 

ishing? It is our Lord's will that we ' preach the Gospel 
to every creature ;' that none should perish through want 
of knowledge. Such is the compassion of the Divine 
Saviour for dying sinners, that he has given commission for 
proclaiming the good tidings of his salvation to all the 
people and nations of the earth. 

" True it is, that each minister of Christ has his peculiar 
charge — his family of Christians to provide for — a .little 
lock committed to his care. In this charge, it is indeed of 
he first importance that he be found faithful ; that the 
>lessings of religion be diffused through every part of his 
ure, and each cottage be consoled with the salvation of 
ur God. But we are bound to extend our care, as the 
<ord shall give us means, to other parts of his vineyard, 
id call upon our flocks to assist us. In this labor of love, 
should every Christian, according to his state and abilities, 
unite. And what Christian will say that he can not contri- 
bute something to so good a work ? Or who that is able 
will refuse to assist us '? Freely have we received ; freely 
let us give. Shall any to whom the arm of the Lord is 
revealed, who are called to a knowledge of Divine grace, 
and enjoy themselves the blessings of the Gospel, feel no 
solicitude to dispense the same blessings to all whom they 
equally concern ? Are we refreshed at the fountain of living 
waters with bread enough, and to spare, and yet have no 
compassion for those who are perishing with hunger, who 
are parched in a thirsty land where no water is ? In all 
those noble efforts which are daily making to diffuse the 
light of the Holy Scriptures, and the knowledge of salva- 
tion to the remotest parts of the earth, to the darkest 
regions of the habitable world, shall our Church only take 
no part ? Shall we who ought from the purity of our doc- 
trines, and the charity which we profess to lead the way in 
every good work, be the last to engage in the best of all 
works, the spreading of the Saviour's Gospel ? Far from 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 129 

sending it to distant regions, we neglect to promulgate it 
among ourselves. Considering our advantages, and how 
mueh the Lord has smiled upon us, no part, perhaps, of the 
Christian field is less cultivated than this in which we are 
appointed to labor. 

" Happily for the general state of religion, and to the 
great honor of the Christian name, the disciples of Jesus 
are, at the present day, awakening to a sense of this duty, 
and sending the light of the Gospel to those who sit in 
darkness. The walls of Zion, we trust, are extending on 
its true foundation and chief corner-stone ; on c the apostles 
and prophets, and Jesus Christ himself.' His kingdom is 
enlarged by 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God.'' Most astonishing have been the exertions, and not 
less wonderful the effects of Bible Societies, now extended, 
or rapidly extending through the greater part of the Christ- 
ian world. This is an era of Gospel light, surpassed only 
by that of its first propagation, and the great miracle of the 
day of Pentecost is almost repeated. Again do the apos- 
tles, though all Galileans, ' preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture.' Parthians and Medes, Cretes and Arabians, the 
dwellers in Africa and the remotest parts of Asia, ' hear 
them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of 
God.' Much is already done, and more, we may hope, will 
be speedily effected by the propagation of the written 
word. It will tend, we may trust, to what is so much by 
all good men to be desired, the union of Christians in faith 
and affection, in doctrine and practice. In proportion as 
they receive these living waters pure from the holy foun- 
tain, they will be refreshed with the same comforts, and 
imbibe the same spirit. With the Divine blessing, it 
will facilitate that for which we daily, and, it is to be hoped, 
most sincerely pray, 'that all who profess and call them- 
selves Christians maybe led into the way of truth, and hold 

6* 



ISO MEMOIR OF 

the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in 
righteousness of life.' 

"But still, to those who have the Bible in their hands, may- 
be applied the words of St. Paul to the Eomans, ' How 
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? 
And how shall they hear, without a preacher ? And how 
shall they preach, except they be sent V The holy Scrip- 
tures, excellent as they are, will be in a great measure but 
a dead letter to those who have no spiritual teachers. God 
in his wisdom has appointed the ordinance of preaching as 
the ordinary means of conversion, and of instructing his 
people in truth and righteousness. Unquestionably it is the 
duty of all, like the wise Bereans, to search the Scriptures, 
and to learn directly from the pen of inspiration what God 
has taught ; but will they ordinarily do this, and will they 
sufficiently understand what they read, except, like the same 
Bereans, they have first heard the word spolcen ; except by 
messengers sent of God their consciences are awakened to 
the serious concerns of their future state % In those parts 
only of the spiritual vineyard, where faithful ministers ' labor 
in word and doctrine,' can we expect in much abundance ' the 
fruit of good living.' 

" But justice requires us to acknowledge that this duty has 
not been wholly neglected. Not only is the Bible sent to 
instruct the ignorant, but teachers also to bear it, to publish 
its sacred contents, and to preach the Gospel in this country 
and in foreign nations where Christ before had not been 
named. In America and in England there are missionary 
societies which have manifested a zeal for propagating the 
Gospel becom'ng those who profess it — becoming those who 
feel its blessings and are actuated by its heavenly princi- 
ples. But the harvest is immensely great, and the laborers 
yet but very few. With sorrow, too, and with shame must 
we add that our Church has taken but little part in this good 
work. There is no greater stigma, which has justly been 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 131 

affixed to the Established Church of England, and sullies 
that reputation which so eminently she has acquired in the 
Christian world^ than her apathy in regard to propagating 
her faith. In all manner of charities her children much 
abound ; but in this department, in this work of evangelists, 
they have been unaccountably deficient. They contribute 
freely to promote the general work, but have done little to 
extend their own communion. In few of the British colonies 
has Episcopacy, till very lately, been completely organized. 
In these States, before the Revolution, while other denomi- 
nations of Christians enjoyed the full establishment of their 
respective systems, the Episcopal Churches were not per- 
mitted to have a bishop. But now we rejoice to bear testi- 
mony that the Church of England is awaking from this 
lethargy, and arising in her strength. A voice is heard from 
the pale of the establishment exhorting her members to 
missionary labors ; a voice that speaks not in vain, and 
soon, no doubt, will she appear in the foremost ranks of the 
evangelizing host. 

" But there is one portion of the Christian Church still de- 
linquent, and however humiliating may be the confession, 
truth will compel us to acknowledge that it is this portion 
to which we belong — even the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the United States. It must, however, be admitted that 
there are even here some recent and honorable exceptions. 
Several of our sister churches in the other States are now 
making very considerable efforts to spread the Gospel. 
Where, then, shall we find a Christian community so little 
engaged in extending its faith as ours of the Eastern Dio- 
cese? And yet the Lord, patient in goodness and abundant 
in mercy, has most evidently manifested a willingness to 
bless our labors. But how long will he be with us ? h«>w 
long will he suffer us ? Can we still expect his favor while 
our zeal, if indeed it be among 'the things which remain; 1 
is thus languishing and c ready to die V 



132 MEMOIR OF 

" Now then is it high time to wake out of sleep. Let us 
not by our indolence tempt the Lord to forsake us. 

" Is it not a fact that we place improper reliance upon our 
orthodoxy, as supposing that truth will spread of itself and 
"bear away the prize, while others on a worse foundation, 
by using better diligence, build with more rapidity ? How 
is it to be lamented that knowledge and zeal, which God 
has joined together, should so often by man be put asunder? 
Divine truth was never popular in this world, and never 
will be popular till the nature of man is changed. While 
the true laborer sleeps, the enemy, ever vigilant, sows 
tares, and when sown they take such root that they must 
grow. They who are zealous in propagating the doctrines 
of Christ, though with some mixture of error, will be more 
successful, and indeed more useful than others who, with a 
sounder creed, are lukewarm. If we would maintain that 
rank among the champions of the cross to which we think 
ourselves entitled, let us not rely on the paper arms of 
canons, creeds, and articles, but put on the whole armor of 
God ; let us press forward amidst the perils of the holy 
warfare, the first in labors or not the first in fame. When 
Peter the Apostle w^as going forth to the good fight of faith, 
how did his Master direct him to distinguish his love above 
that of others 1 By his fidelity in dispensing the words of 
life, 'feed my lambs, feed my sheep.' Those who thus 
' rule well,' and ' labor in word and doctrine' with fidelity, 
shall ' be counted worthy of double honor.' Let us be so 
distinguished. Let us wake out of this sleep. It is time 
that this too just reproach of indolence should be taken 
away from our Church, and that we who profess the purest 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should no longer be the 
coldest in zeal for enlarging the borders of his kingdom. 
It is time that we show our faith by our works. Is it not 
our duty to impart the bread of this life to the hungry ? 
And is it less the duty of Christians to make known the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 133 

will of God to the ignorant ? and to rescue thoughtless sin- 
ners from misery and shame ? "Was the command of Christ 
to preach his Gospel to every creature limited to his first 
apostles ? Has the merciful Saviour no love, no grace, no 
concern for sinners at the present day ? Is it not the duty 
still of every minister and every Christian, according to 
his means and opportunities, to sound abroad these tidings 
alvation ! Was it necessary for the first disciples to 
labor so abundantly in word and doctrine — must they 
encounter perils by land and perils by water, be instant in 
season, out of season, boldly withstand persecution, flames. 
and death, and reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long- 
suffering — and is it now become of so little concern 1 are 
the souls of men now so worthless, and their salvation of 
so small account, as to give us no anxiety or solicitude ! as 
not to be worth the sacrifice of a few hours from the year 
or a few pence from our abundance ? • Tell it not in Gath !' 
Why did our blessed Saviour suffer such indignities, and 
the cruel death of the cross 1 why, with such awakening 
concern, send his Gospel to all the nations of the earth ? to 
what purpose were all the labors and sufferings and martyr- 
dom of apostles, and evangelists, and prophets, except it 
be a matter of the utmost importance that men should 
hear and believe the Gospel — except it be an indispens- 
able duty and most benevolent work in all Christians to 
impart to mankind the knowledge and the means of sal- 
vati«_: 

[After referring to the lamentable neglect of religion 
which was manifest around them, he closes with this appeal 
to the clergy j ersonally :] 

•* With what awakened apprehension, my reverend breth- 
ren, with what trembling solicitude should we reflect that 
f<»r these thii gs we may be in some degr ! If 



134 MEMOIR OF 

ungodliness prevails in our flocks we are not released from 
the responsibility ; we have not delivered our own souls till 
we have given warning, and declared the whole counsel of 
God by our preaching and example. We are ordained to 
be ' the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor' 
it is good for nothing. Our divine Master has commanded 
his ministers to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, 
and no ministers that he has ever sent have had more need 
than we of such prudence and innocency. We have to con- 
tend not only with all the impediments and difficulties com- 
mon to those who preach the Gospel, but unhappily with 
the prejudices of our Christian brethren of other denomina- 
tions, against the Episcopal Church ; which prejudices you 
well know prevail, and in a very great degree, in most parts 
of these Eastern States. It is certain that thousands and 
tens of thousands are led to believe that we neglect the 
essentials of religion ; that we do not teach the depravity of 
human nature, the necessity of conversion, the renewal of 
the heart by the Holy Spirit, and that we are justified, not 
by our works but by our faith in the merits and sacrifice of 
Jesus Christ. Our Articles, you will say, may teach them 
the contrary. True : but they may not read our Articles, or 
they may think that toe do not read them. Let us teach 
them the contrary. Let the true doctrines of our Church, 
on these points, be clearly and often taught, according to 
their importance. Add line upon line and precept upon 
precept, till prejudice shall give place to conviction. In 
teaching our flocks, let us carefully endeavor to lay the 
foundation of ,repentance, faith, and sincere piety. To 
instruct them in moral righteousness, without this founda- 
tion, is like building a house upon the sand. 

"And let us c take heed to ourselves,' as well as ' to our 
doctrine.' Let us be sure that we possess that which we 
pretend to dispense. Shall we preach ' repentance toward 
God,' while we live to the world? Or i faith towards the 



EI8H0P GRISWOLD. 135 

Lord Jesus Christ." while, by our own conduct, we put him 
to open shame \ How can we persuade others by ( the 
terrors of the Lord.' except those terrors have awakened 
our own hearts to righteousness ? Or impart to them com- 
forts which we have never felt I Let us not only embrace 
the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, but adorn the doctrine of 
God in all things. Let us show by our own example how 
men should walk and please him. Let us labor not to please 
men. but to save them ; and evince, by our zeal for their 
spiritual interest, that we seek not theirs but them. If we 
would have them * so account of us as stewards of the mys- 
teries of God, 5 let us never forget that ( it is required in 
stewards that a man be found faithful.' 

*• That we may be so found, and that the Churches com- 
mitted to our care may increase in numbers, piety, and zeal, 
the Lord mercifully grant, through Jesus Christ, to whom, 
with the Father and the blessed Spirit, be ascribed all glory 
and praise for ever. Amen.*' 

[For some years after this he was largely engaged in 
correspondence with the London Church Missionary Society, 
through its Secretary, the Rev. Josiah Pratt — a correspond- 
ence which had for its object the enlistment of the Episcopal 
Church in America in that work of M preaching the Gospel to 
every creature," in which the Mother Church of England, 
her various missionary societies, was so nobly en- 
1. But peculiar difficulties then surrounded our Church, 
and it was not till Ions afterward that his 3 and eflbrtH 

re crowned with success. 

The following extract from a letter written in November, 
1818. to the late Bishop Chase, who had met with unex- 
pected and trying delays in his consecration as Bishoj 
1 ►, shows that the overwhelming sense of responsibility 
well-nigh prevented his own tance of the 



136 MEMOIR OF 

Episcopal office, had not lessened in the execution of its 
duties :] 

*• My approbation, my good wishes, my prayers, though 
unworthy to be heard, you certainly have. Permit me, 
however, to add the expression of my regret, that you 
should feel any other anxiety in this business than appre- 
hension of the extreme cares and awful responsibility of the 
office which you are about to assume. Such, at least, are 
my own feelings and sense of the thing. It is yet almost 
my daily fear that I did wrong in accepting this office. If 
there are difficulties or obstacles in the way of your ordina- 
tion, wait with patience (my advice is) and with entire 
resignation till the Lord shall remove them. In such cases 
he will open the right way, and perhaps better without our 
concern than with it. If it be the Lord's will to commit to 
your trust this ministry, you must bid adieu to temporal 
ease and worldly happiness ; but for your comfort, you 
will know who has said, l If a man desire the office of a 
bishop he desireth a good work.'' Should it appear, how- 
ever, that the Lord has not called you to this work, you 
may well rejoice in escaping its cares and responsibilities. 
Or, should the Church deem it expedient that the consecra- 
tion be postponed till the next meeting of the General Con- 
vention, that will soon arrive. The time is but litle longer 
than I, in a like situation, gladly waited, and had that time 
been doubled, should have thought it short enough in pre- 
paring for such a work." 

The weak and decayed state of several of the parishes 
was a cause of much anxiety to the careful Bishop. The 
parish at Marblehead, in particular, had become so hope- 
lessly reduced that the disheartened remnant were ready to 
accede to a proposal on the part of the Congregationalists 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 13? 

to purchase their lot and building. The manful stand taken 
by 'the Bishop will be seen in his truly characteristic letter 
to the Rev. Mr. Carlile : 

"Bristol, January 11, 1821. 
; - Rev, and Dear Sir : 

M It was not till yesterday P.M. that I received your 
favor of the 5th instant. Its subject is painful indeed ; yet 
most sincerely do I render you grateful acknowledgments 
for the interest you take in the Church at Marblehead, and 
for acquainting me with its melancholy situation. 

" With regard to the question, "Whether its few remaining 
friends shall dispose of their pews for the purpose stated ? 
without pretending to interfere with their legal right to do 
it, and without expressing or feeling any hostility or oppo- 
sition to the proposed new society, I can not for a moment 
hesitate In giying my decided disapprobation. If that Church, 
of so many years' standing, is to be abandoned and giyen 
up. and its property, which has been piously deyoted to its 
sacred use, is to be alienated, it must be done without my 
consent. I can neyer adyise or consent to such a measure. 
Suppose the worst, that the Church there will neyer be 
revived, shall the clergy, its guardians and protectors, 
hasten its dissolution ? Shall the physician murther the 
patient whom he despairs of healing ? But are we sure that 
the Church in Marblehead will neyer be revived ? Have 
we no faith in the power and providence of God ? F< tin- 
years ago the Church in Portland was more hopeless, and 
now they support a worthy and pious minister. If all of 
the present generation should forsake that Church, who 
knows what zeal God may awaken in that which is to 
ceed ? God often tries our faith by showing us the foil} 
human wisdom, and the weakness of human i A 

zealous, praying people he never did and neyer will forsake. 
Let us consider why it is that the Lord removes the can- 
irks from his Churches — because we lose our first love, 



188 MEMOIR OF 

because we are cold in our religious affection, and serve the 
world more than our God. Let us, with united, humble 
hearts, and with fervent, persevering zeal, look to the Lord 
our God, and he will return in mercy. 

" Beside, have we reason to believe that converting our 
churches into Congregational societies is likely, in the end, 
to resist the errors of the day ? I respect our Congrega- 
tional brethren, and, I trust, sincerely esteem them in the 
Lord. But who does not know that their inefficient system 
has given facility to the introduction of those errors ? What 
Church is so likely to withstand them as ours % What 
could cause greater joy to the supporters of those errors 

than to see all our churches given up in the same way ? * 
* * * * % * 

"Accept the assurance of my friendship and esteem, 

"Alexander V. Griswold. 
" Eev. Thomas Carlile." 

There is an insight into the Bishop's real character ; an 
insight not often obtained, because modesty and humility 
made him yielding or conciliating in matters of indifference, 
or of his own mere personal convenience ; an insight, for 
want of which his character was often misunderstood and 
misstated ; an insight, which shows that when matters of 
principle, of conscience, of duty were concerned, he was 
decision, firmness, inflexibility itself. Let such a matter 
come in what shape it would, though hemmed in with dif- 
ficulty and dark with discouragement, it moved him not at 
all. He knew how to hope when all others feared, to be- 
lieve when all others doubted, to draw encouragement out 
of discouragement, and to hold fixedly on God, though 
naught on earth was holding with him. 

An incident occurred about this time which illustrates his 
character in its yielding, conciliating aspect. I have already 
related the circumstances which formerly defeated his wishes 



BISHOP GRfSWOLD. 13 ( J 

and plans, and those of his parishioners, for a new church- 
edifice in Bristol, and the readiness with which he acqui- 
esced in the determination to continue still in their old and 
inconvenient building. Under the great increase of his 
parish, the discomforts of this continued to be increasingly 
felt, and to prompt the unceasing and the growing wish for 
a better church. On one of his tours, when consecrating a 
new edifice for a small parish in New-Hampshire, he re- 
corded this sentiment : " I have often wondered why it is 
that there is scarcely a parish in my diocese, however weak, 
that can not succeed in building a new church, except my 
own." This year his feelings and those of his parishioners 
prompted a new effort, and being on a New-Hampshire tour 
he addressed a letter to one of his principal parishioners, 
without whose concurrence he did not choose to proceed in 
the work, urging upon him various powerful and convincing 
reasons why a new church-edifice should be forthwith built. 
This parishioner, however, still refused to sanction the move- 
ment, and therefore it was again abandoned. A new church 
was not necessary, in such a sense that they could not do 
without it. He could still preach, and his j^eople could still 
hear the true Gospel in the old church, uncomfortable, and, 
to their worldly pride, mortifying as it was. All this was 
better than contention and strife, and therefore he chose it. 
In the words of his letter, just alluded to, "the interesting 
subject of building a new church was, when I left home, in 
agitation. On this subject there was a difference of opinion, 
and some danger that it might cause dissension and disturb 
that harmony which has so long and so happily prevailed 
among us. This, in my estimation, would be a greater evil 
than having no church, new or old, to worship in." Hiere 
was another insight into his character! It was the Bishop 
still: not another man — but the same man, acting under 
other circumstances. He could preach the Gospel in a 
barn, or in the open air. rather than injure peace and breed 



1 40 MEMOIR or 

strife ; although he could not consent to alienate consecrated 
church property, even when there appeared scarce a human 
probability that it would ever again be used for the pur- 
poses to which it had been consecrated. He had his reward. 
St. Michael's, Bristol, built a new church, when it could be 
done without wounding his love of peace ; and St. Michael's, 
Marblehead, lived to see firmer strength and fairer prospects 
than those which it enjoyed when it stood trembling on the 
result of a petition to the Legislature of Massachusetts, the 
prayer of which was urged by those who desired to possess 
its ancient heritage. 

I have just spoken of the tour which he was making 
when he wrote his letter to Bristol, urgino; reasons for the 
building of a new church. Another letter written on the 
same tour, will show us in what spirit and amidst what 
feelings he pursued his various way over mountain and 
valley, while carrying his embassage for Christ to the peo- 
ple of his charge : 

"Bellows Falls, Vt., June 26, 1821. 

" Dear II : 

« * * * Sure I am that you will cordially unite with me in 
devout and humble thanks to the Father of Mercies, that his 
unseen hand has conducted me thus far through one more 
of these (what many call very laborious) journeys. Did I 
think as much of the labors performed as of the mercies 
received, I should be (more if possible, than I am) unworthy 
of the least of them. That I do so little of what is to be 
done ; that I am so remiss in the service of such a Master ; 
that I so often feel weary and languid and lifeless, when the 
immortal destinies of God only knows how many of my 
fellow-creatures are at stake, and perhaps in some mysteri- 
ous sense and awful degree dependent on my fidelity, is the 
subject of daily sorrow. Is there not too much reason for 
that painful apprehension which I most certainly and often 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 141 

feel, that the Lord's continuing in an office so important one 
so unworthy, is an evidence of his displeasure against the 
Churches of this Diocese ? But whatever I am. the Lord's 
will be done ; cease not to pray for us. and that he will 
send into this field, now white for the harvest, laborers 
ording to his own mind. 
* * * * * * * 

- How wonderful, dear H . have been the Lord's 

mercies to the most unworthy of his creatures ! "When I 
;t that now for ten years I have been engaged in these 
us ; that all the arrangements for my services, with 
gard to time and place, have been made several weeks 
re, and many of them under circumstances of doubt and 
difficulty which you can not well conceive ; and yet that I 
have never tailed in any one appointment, it seems incredi- 
ble and as a dream. The Lord mercifully grant that this 
■rienee of his protecting goodness may not make mo 
sumptuous. My appointments tor Monday and Tuesday 
next seem scarce practicable. It is written : * Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God.' 

******* 
~ Tiie following is a short extract from my journal : 
••June 15th. — In the morning we proceed, over a bad 
\. through a new and interesting country, to Berkshire, 
(a town in Vermont, on the Canada line :) Dr. AY. and lady 
very excellent people ; was much pleased with their sim- 
plicity of manner and unaffected kindness ; and chiefly with 
their attachment to the Church and liberality in its support 
Our services, P.M., very interesting. The school-house not 
being sufficient to contain the congregation exp efced, prepa- 

made in a beautiful grove of young ma] a, 
a fir. i ground; and the timber collected near the 

wilding a new Church furnished abundant materials 
■ and seats. Thus was anticipated, at"! 

altar . we may almost 



142 



MEMOIR OF 



materials, now preparing to be ' fitly joined together' in a 
regular temple, to be dedicated to God, suggest the thought, 
that they who sit upon them are, we may hope, materials in 
preparation, even ' lively stones,' to be hereafter united in a 
temple infinitely more glorious, * a building not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens.' Many circumstances con- 
spired to heighten the interest of the scenery and the occa- 
sion. At a small distance in front, without the grove, which 
was semi-circular, was the intended site of the new Church. 
Below, at the foot of a gentle descent, the road leads along ; 
and beyond it for a long distance on either hand, the river 
Missisque is seen winding its beautiful course through an 
extended vale. And still beyond are rising forests and 
fields, and hills swelling into various shapes and sizes, 
while mountains rearing their unequal and lofty summits 
terminate the view. In such a situation, surrounded by a 
numerous assembly, collected from several towns and many 
miles in every direction, and, like Cornelius and his friends 
waiting ' to hear all things that were commanded us of God,' 
my thoughts were such as I have not language to express. 
How deep are the counsels of the Almighty ! Why is an 
instrument so weak and unworthy sent on a message of 
such importance'? 'Who shall satisfy these men with bread 
here in the wilderness V God's power is made manifest in 
weakness. We sung the 50th hymn; (the 36th of our 
present selection, ' Far from my thoughts, vain world be- 
gone ;' etc) Evening prayer was performed by Mr. 
Leonard. After the second lesson, seven young persons, 
four men and three women, with the appearance of the most 
sincere devotion, presented themselves for baptism, which 
was administered by Mr. Clapp. The sermon was heard 
with an attention worthy of a better discourse. After ser- 
mon, thirty-five persons received confirmation, and received 
it, there was no reason to doubt, with a just and deep sense 
of its nature and design. And then the Lord's Supper was 



BISHOP GR1SWOLD. 143 

administered to a respectable number of very devout com- 
municants. 

% * * ¥t * * * 

" Yours most affectionately, 

" A. V. Griswold." 

Who with a Christian heart can read this letter and not 
wish that he had been with the holy Bishop, and a sharer in 
his unutterable feelings, as he surveyed the scene which he 
described, and engaged in the duties which he performed, 
in the midst of that hungering congregation of- the wilder- 
ness ? The world will say there is no evidence of great- 
ness in these and the thousand other details which fill the 
Episcopal career of Bishop Griswold ; and as the men of 
the world count greatness, their saying is true. There is 
nothing here of the orator on Bunker Hill, who keeps the 
tides of a human ocean swaying to and fro, in obedience to 
the power of his burning eye and of his voiced thoughts ; 
nothing of the negotiator of a treaty, on the result of which 
hangs the question of peace or war between the nations of 
the earth; nothing of the mighty bard, whose epic song 
charms the cultured mind of a reading world through the 
distance of thousands of years ; nothing of the awful philoso- 
pher, who, with a little instrument in his hand, \ pla- 
nets and measures the courses and the periods of the hear 
Nevertheless, in all the details through which we 
been passing, ami arc yet to pass, there is greatm'>> 
still; the greatness of a mind that could repress, though not 
extinguish, its inborn, deathh ion for Literature and 

:ce; of a mind that could forego its young ambition for 
distinction among men, whether at the bar or at the board 

-mmerce ; whether in the debates of senates or in the 

of state; of a mind which, thus refrained, could 

ote itself, not to schem* lans 

-df-acrcrrandizement j n the Church ; not to the magnifi- 



144 MEMOIR OF 

cence of titulary priesthood, nor to the toils of political 
churchmanship ; but to the solemn work of a humble, holy 
Christian Bishop ; willing, in poverty and self-denial, to carry 
the Gospel of his Great Lord and Master to c the poor des- 
titute,' and to the unfed dwellers of the wilderness ; living 
amidst unutterable conceptions of the divine greatness of his 
vocation ; and falling into the most unaffected and habitual 
self-abasement in view of what was ever rising before him, 
the condescension of God in employing him in such a work, 
and the mercy of God in keeping him through its perils. 
In views of religion and of duty, such as he embraced, few 
men could appear great to the eye of the to or Id ; and these 
few belong to a class whose opulence and brilliancy of 
genius can not be hid, place them where you may. But 
though these are greatest, yet they are not the only great ; 
and the reason why men of inferior, though still impressive 
greatness, when constituted, sanctified, and employed like 
Bishop Griswold, do not appear great to worldly apprehen- 
sions, is, that they are too far above the world to be mea- 
sured. Men of the world judge accurately of men like 
themselves; as they do of the size and shape of objects 
beside them on the earth, their houses, their equipage, and 
their farms. But they do not ordinarily judge with accu- 
racy of the great Christian who is thoroughly imbued with 
his Master's Spirit, and self-deny ingly given up to his 
Master's work. Such a Christian, like a man standing on 
the summit of a tall mountain, may appear little to the be- 
holders below, his step may be unheard, and his action may 
seem weak ; but it is not because he is little, nor because his 
step wakes no echo, nor because his action is feeble; but 
because he is so distant from them, and so much nearer 
heaven than themselves. 

On the 27th of June, 1821, while on this tour through 
Vermont, he attended the annual Convention of the Church 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 145 

in that State, at Bellows Falls, the fullest that had ever 
-ambled in that par: >f his Die 3ese. 
His remark?, in this Address, on his visits to Holderness 
and Hopkinton. New-Hampshire, will show the manner in 
which he [fleeted by every little symptom of awakening 

interest on the subject of religion, and in which he strov 
urage every such awakening towards a full and abiding 
heavenly things. Speaking of his visit to the former 
place, he - jrs: u Some of the people remarked that 6 it was 
the har they had ." They who thus 

delight in the blessings of the sanctuary, who prize al 
worl sores :f life and the ministrations 

mer> ... . •; from the kingdom 

re must be many in this Id who love their Saviour, 
when the most unworthy of his mil fee, so 

kindly received and so much r - 1. and when the sa 

memorials of redeeming love ar satisfaction than 

the ainor allurements of this I 'f the latter 

place, where a small congregation, in which "the 

me faithful souls." he says : u Th as to 

in the name of a prophet,' is a pleasing 
at *a prophet's reward' shall be their portion. 
given more than ; a cup of cold water to 
one of the lc the Lord :. 1 

remember the: 

The effectual, fervent prayer of the r _ \s man availeth 

much; l ishea,in0O] anon with others, may find 

ing true, _ a fter the time when he who 

them went to hi- . 
Such gementas the Bi 

fully _ sages jus 

unm. that whi aly, 

the t s whose 

with tl eculiarl) 

to hi- centle an d . -pirit. ] 



146 MEMOIR OF 

Bishop Hobart, in regard to admitting to orders a candidate 
who had once been rejected in New-York, and the great dis- 
sension between Dr. Jarvis, then Rector of St, Paul's, Bos- 
ton, and the congregation, requiring the summons of a 
Council of Presbyters to effect a separation, and leading to 
very unjust, and bitter, and widely-circulated charges on the 
part of Dr. Jarvis and his friends against the Bishop, for the 
part which he was compelled to take in enforcing the sen- 
tence, were great and sore trials to one whose nature was 
so full of "love unfeigned." 

The latter gave occasion, in a letter written to a friend, 
immediately after the second Council of Presbyters, which 
sustained the decision of the first, to the following remarks, 
evincing the most divinely-chastened and heavenly temper 
of the writer : 

u I have never allowed myself to view any person as my 
enemy ; but I have now discovered, beyond what I had ever 
before known, that some persons are much opposed to me, 
and that very much has been said against my character and 
conduct. My actions have been ascribed to interested and 
base motives. I have much reason for anxiety and self- 
examination. It is among the common infirmities of our 
nature to be too hasty in justifying ourselves, and also to 
consider as our enemies those who think us unworthy. These 
are the remains of unsubdued pride. If a man honestly 
thinks me unworthy of the place which I fill, it is no evi- 
dence of his hostility, I ought to think the same of myself. 
I know, indeed, that some of the things which are said to 
my injury are not true ; but I ought to consider that they 
who say them probably believe them to be true ; and also, 
that if some think me worse, there are others who think me 
better, than I am. But I shall not dismiss this subject with- 
out some boasting ; for I think that with truth I may say, 
that mv anxieties have not been for what my own character. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 14? 

but for what the Church, was likely to suffer. In this. 
through the Lord's goodness. I was not a little relieved on 
Tuesday morning, by finding that the clergy in Massachusetts 
were (much beyond what I expected) ready to support me 
in the measures which were taken in regard to Dr. Jarvis 
and St. Paul's Church." 

About this time, also, aj a controversy on the subject 
• Prayer-meetings in the Episcopal Church,'' especially 
- they marked the practice of many of the parishes in 
Rhode Island, during Bishop Griswold's residence in that 
State. These meetings, it is believed, originated as early 
be year 1812, and were the attendants, or fruits, of that 
tarkable awakening on the subject of religion which then 
I in the parish of St. Michael's, Bristol, and of which 
has left us such an interesting account in his auto- 
ame and continued common among 
s of that State ; but. so orderly and noiseless 
• they, that little was known of them save in the good 
were accompanied, and in the thanksgivings 
iany pi<;»us hearts, by which that good was followed. 
who frequented them were quiet members of the 
Church, by the world overlooked, even as they locked a 
id. They molested no one, and no one mol< - 
n, till "Tl G spel Advocate," not long after its estab- 
lishment, published s . in which they were evidently 
1 their cha that of their advo- 
s, ■ i- held up to unfavorable oba ... From that 
$ they became < of more public attention 3 and the 
it in which ridently tin- m< 

' disunion in 

. haply, had else slumber to their 

•n. \'\. !i a spirit as that of Bishop Griswoid 

licting \ iewa n< en kindled, 

i< ii influ brought to fan the ipark, 



148 MEMOIR OF 

which is always and everywhere latent in human nature, 
even when that nature is found embodied in the Church of 
Christ ; and which, when once blown into a flame, it is one of 
the most difficult things beneath the sun to extinguish. Lit 
up in the eastern Diocese, it continued to blaze with varying 
fierceness, according as some new excitement fed it with fresh 
fuel, and kept up those fires in which it is not too much to say 
that the Bishop's patient love of peace, tried often, but never 
overcome, burnt, martyr-like, for more than twenty of the last 
years of his life. Blessed was the spirit in which he suffered, 
and blessed have been its fruits. His fear of aggravating 
existing differences kept him, I am aware, from proposing, 
or from urging, many things which, under ordinary circum- 
stances, would have put more of impulse and activity into 
the Diocese under his administration ; but it also favored the 
gradual return of more composed times ; since, by holding 
himself aloof from strife, by throwing himself into neither of 
the opposing ranks, by withholding, so far as he could, every- 
thing that might feed the fires, and especially by bridling 
his tongue, except when, as he conceived, the defence of truth 
and righteousness required him to open his mouth, he had 
the happiness, especially before the close of his life, of see- 
ing the flames which had been lit up burn lower and lower, 
till at last, before his death, they went out, or at least ceased 
to shoot visible spires above the tranquillized surface of affairs 
in his Diocese. 

With the above remarks on his love of peace and his un- 
willingness to increase strife his defence of the Ehode Island 
prayer-meetings was by no means in conflict. That was a 
case in which he felt that duty required him to speak. It 
was, in truth, his love of peace that made him open his 
mouth. He spoke "not to accuse, but to defend." He 
sought to close a virtual war upon peace ; and had his de- 
fence been admitted into the Journal, to which it was first 
offered, it had so much the sooner effected its pacific object. 



BISHOP GRI3W0LD. 149 

Its influence, when it finally appeared in the Episcopal 
Register of Vermont, in the years 1827 and 1828, was pow- 
erfully felt, as well it might be ; for it is believed that no 
one with a Christian spirit in his heart, whatever may have 
been his previous prejudices against Episcopal prayer-meet- 
. can read it without feeling, with its author, that " If, 
after due consideration, our sober and most candid judgment 
is unfavorable to these" meetings, "the safer way is to let 
them alone. We can not be too careful not to be found fight- 
ing against GodP 

The spirit in which he defended the meetings and those 
who joined in them may be judged from a sentence which I 
find in the fifth chapter of the work. "If it be admitted," 
. - that the meetings are according to the will of God, 
and that his Spirit will and does bless those who unite in 
supplication, it must, according to the Scriptures, be 
[ that men will oppose them. They who cry ear- 
nestly to their Saviour for mercy and grace may be rebuked 
that they should hold their peace ; but in such case they will 
do well, like some in the Gospel, to cry the more, 'Have 
i m us, O Lord, thou son of David.' " 
To be rightly estimated, however, the whole of his little 
for the numbers have since been collected and pub- 
lished in a volume by themselves) should be read with can- 
did attention, it will then be found as full of point and 
abilil if piety and moderation. It is the best pro- 

duction on the subject anywhere to be met with. So far as 
any thing human can avail, it shuts the mouth of objection, 
thought, and stirs up consideration. There is in it, 
indeed, what seldom appeared in either his writings or his 
conversation, a quiet hut forceful under-play of that talent 
for which he was distinguished in his youthful daj jring 

pithy and pointed things. Hut so far as this talent appears 
I as it partakes of the nature of wit and satire, it is 
anctified. It baa enough of point to prick the 



MEMO IK OF 

sides of at: but i nough to wound the heart of 

— enough to awaken a quiet smile, but not enough to 
ehafe a - irit Its subject is not popular with the 

world, and even with many Christians the name of a book 
in dei r-meetmgs is sufficient to keep Lis 

And vet there is enough between the- 
not to lead men of the world and over-cautious Christians 
into prayer-meeting?, at lc epay them for their trouble 

in reading : .en if th seek thins farther than 

an exhit well-disciplined pc illfully and har 

applied to their pni The : : : h ought to be reprinted, 

and read by j member of our Church. 

In the 1826, at the triennial meeting of our General 

Convention, :. proposal was made by some of th >th i 

Bishops to introduce eertain ":./;::."::ns in the book : 
Common Prayer." " chiefly for the pnrpc moving the 

jenerally ma I the length of our Morning 
Service.* Th -■ f i - d - . to the Convention- : 

the several dio jeses for t ber being 

thus considered, was to I 1 on at the next triennial 

ting of the General Convention. Of this j 
1 took notice in his Annual Address t 
: the Eastern Diocese, in 1827, and the next 
(July. 1828) he commence articles in the E 

Regis* n the subject of an ** improvement c: 
Liturgy.* 1 Biia bq ntinued till i _ . and 

lined a aagges us on its subje-; i - 

ins the most minute studv of our I - Bees, 

eml 2 b Die rich and valuable thoughts on the 

manner _ ugly 

a writer in "the 
published in Western [ 1 such was the m 

and sneering temper of the assault that the Bisk 3 con- 

stra: It v c of self 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 151 

defence. In this he proved himself a formidable defendant, 
and demonstrated that, as a controversialist, he possessed 
powers which, had he chosen to wield them on this or any 
other subject, and with the usual freedom of controversial 
writers, would have placed him high on the list of able pole- 
mics. But controversy was not his main object, nor did his 
articles in general breathe the spirit of controversy. He 
doubtless believed the Liturgy susceptible of improvement. 
and would have been willing to see it really improved. But 
tbject in this series of essays was, in truth, to prevent 
the specific alterations which had been proposed in Genera! 
mention, by showing that, if any thing were done, some- 
thing more and other than had been recommended was 
!n sh«»rt, he would have the Liturgy either left 
untouched or touched to better purpose than that which the 
tion had in view. Hence he says, in replying to his 
reviewer in the Gospel Messenger, "I have suggested some 
thing might add others, which, in my view, go to show 

that we had better make no change, or make more than is 
now proposed." * * * * " Probably nine tenths, at 
our brethren would wish that alteration {improve- 
arse) were made in our Liturgy, but for the great 
nvenience and serious evils which must necessarily attend 
all attempts h change, though for the better. No one 

can reasonably doubt bul alterations in the Prayer-Book will 
continue bo be made in the time to come, as they have been 
mad.- in the time past Whether the present is a favorable 
to make them may well be doubted. My wish is to 
make n< to make all that are needed; and if what I 

written shall contribute to either the one or the other 
nit. my purpose will be accomplished." 
The Stand which he took when the alterations were ]>n>- 

d in the General Convention seems to have brought 

•: him the undeserved charges ofawanl of attachment to 

the Liturgy and the Church, and of ;i change from his earl; 



152 



MEMOIR OF 



and well-known loyalty to these our cherished institutions. 
This drew from him, in his Annual Address for 1827. the 
following strong-toned and spirited paragraph of self-vindi- 
cation, while laying the proposed alterations before his Con- 
tention : 

" I am well aware of the delicacy and difficulties of this 
subject, and how necessary it is. if we would be accounted 
Churchmen, to eulogize the Liturgy, and to deprecate as 
i acrilege even the least alteration. But on this point I have 
little anxiety. Nursed, as I have been, from earliest infancy 
ia the bosom of this Church, having passed my whole life 
:imong Episcopalians, as much so perhaps as any man of my 
age in this country living, and having been above forty years 
a member of its communion, I have long since imbibed a 
deep prepossession (not to say prejudice) in its favor. Nor 
hare I, (' as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm 
that' the fact is) been changed in my opinion respecting it. 
That I am wholly free even from bigotry, I dare not affirm, 
I >ut for many years I have endeavored impartially to examine 
the claims of our Church to Scriptural orthodoxy and primi 
live order, and the examination has confirmed me in the on 
doubting belief that her claims are well founded. Xor am 1 
conscious of having ever said or done any thing inconsistent 
with such belief. I humbly trust that I have also, in some 
small degree, imbibed that truly liberal spirit of forbearance 
and charity which our Church, more than any other Christian 
community on earth, inculcates, and which is not the least 
among the many proofs that she is indeed the Church of 
Christ. In what manner, and by what means, the interest 
and prosperity of this Church and of true religion will best 
be promoted, there will be among us, it must be expected, 
some diversity of opinion ; but in decided attachment to its 
order and worship, and in a sincere desire to promote its 
best good, I shall not yield to any one, however lofty or ex- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 153 

elusive may be his pretensions. Though I may seem to 
i speak foolishly in this confidence of boasting,' yet this con- 
on, you must well know, is not uncalled for, and I hope 
inexcusable. It is also in some degree necessary to give 
you a right view of the part I acted in the Convention on the 
subject of altering the Liturgy, and to prevent any wrong 
inference from what I take the liberty of suggesting in this 
address.' 3 

It has been remarked that the essavs which he sent to the 

t/ 

••opal liegister, besides minutely noticing the improve- 
rs of which the Liturgy is susceptible, contained some 
rich and valuable thoughts on the best mode of performing 
our - h Those with which he closed the whole series 

and striking, and show so well the whole spirit 
9, that they may not improperly be quoted here, 
in dismissing our notice of this passage of his life. He is 
iking of that studied and artificial mode of reading which 
per so sarcastically hits in his character of one who 

11 Soils accent, tone, 
And emphasis in score, and gives to prayer 
The adagio and andante it demands.'' 

md falling the voice too much,"" he observes, 
"always lessens the solemnity of prayer, and in most in- 
stances is worse than monotony. Thai pitch of the voice 
should be assumed which best unites with gravity and ease, 
and any deviation from it, beyond what in musk is called a 
third, is generally, in uttering prayers, a fault. If we rightly 
understand and truly feel, Nature will be the best teacher of 
and emphasis. In this lies the main secret of read- 
ing the well, that the heart he truly and deeply im- 
3» d with j>i<>iis feeling and the worship of (i«»d ; that we 

think nothing of ourselves hut as sinful, needy creatures, nor 
oftk ition present but as fellow-sinners uniting with 



154 MEMOIR OF 

us at the throne of grace ; (what they may think of our per- 
formance should never enter our mind ;) that we avoid all 
manner of affectation and attempts to appear well before 
men, or to gain applause ; and that it be our one and con- 
stant endeavor that the words uttered by our lips exactly 
express the feelings of our heart. To aim at our own glory 
when we preach is a great sin, but in our prayers it is the 
greatest of abominations." 

Whatever fault may be found with his idea of the improv- 
ableness of the Liturgy itself, none, it is presumed, will be 
found with this idea of the manner in which it should ever 
be used. 

It is, I believe, generally supposed that the Eastern Dio- 
cese was a sort of hot-bed for the production of lax princijries 
and of loose attachments on the subject of our Church and 
her institutions. Whatever may have been the state of facts 
in this respect before the organization of the diocese, the sup- 
position does great injustice to its tendencies after that organ- 
ization and its subjection to the influence of Bishop Griswold. 
To show the injustice of the supposition was evidently his 
object in the following remarks. From speaking of the 
general progress of " God's kingdom in this sinful world," he 
comes down to the history of his own diocese, and adds : 

"When, eighteen years since, it was organized, true 
Church principles (with a few exceptions) were far less re- 
garded. The doctrines of the Eeformation were not so 
generally and suitably enforced, and it is certain that the 
authority of the Church and our General Convention was 
held in much less estimation. How great, since, has been 
the change in the increase of our numbers, the union of our 
Churches, and the correctness of our principles ! If we bring 
into view (what, to judge accurately, we must do) the com- 
parative increase of population in the different States, our 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 155 

increase in the number of our clergy, Churches, and com- 
municants has been greater than in any other of the Northern 
or Middle States. The union of our Churches without inter- 
ruption has been and still is increasing ; party distinctions 
are happily scarce known among us, and they should be con- 
sidered as our enemies who would introduce them. The 
true principles of the Protestant Episcopal Church can, I 
!y believe, in no part of this world be found in greater 
on than in this diocese. It is delightful to see the 
fence which our clergy and people generally have for the 
r and worship of the Church and for the General Con- 
vention. I can not sufficiently express my thanks to the 
Father of mercies and the Head of the Church that especially 
in this diocese a body of clergy so decidedly attached 
I I hureh and so zealous in support of its dis- 
tinctive principles, without any leaning to Popery, or aban- 
donment <»f Protestant principles, or neglect of evangelical 
truth." 

Bad he a sort of prophet's eye when he wrote these last 
a ; and was he striving to gird up the loins of the cleri- 
cal mind around him against a coming day of evil? What 
follows is in his usual style. He seldom touched the point 
of our ecclesiastical superiority without adding a salutar\ 
istion of our corresponding responsibilities. 

l4 Bu1 while we offer the just tribute of praise to God 

90 great a b] ; < I as not deceive ourselves in a vain 

confidence of boasting; nor, because in these things we are 

much better tlian in times past, suppose we are all which 

light to be. We of the Episcopal Church are indeed 

too much given to commend ourselves; and we may even 

feat thai the cant of sectarianism is growing upon us. A 

: of complacency in thinking and speaking of our ortho- 

iperior excellence of our ecclesiastical sys- 



156 MEMOIR OF 

tern, naturally leads us to put too much confidence in our 
profession, and to be so satisfied with ourselves as to make 
less improvement. Let us not forget who it is that makes 
us to differ from others, and that for all which God gives 
us, we are accountable to him. If in religious privileges 
we are indeed more blessed than other Christians, we are 
also more sinful and more to be condemned than other 
Christians, if we do not also as much excel them in the 
fruits of the Spirit and a zeal for God. We can not be the 
best friends to religion, except we are the most willing and 
most forward in promoting its general interests ; nor the 
best friends of the Church, if we are not the most active in 
doing that which will best increase the number, faith, and 
piety of its members. Our Lord's rule is : 'By their fruits 
ye shall know them.' Truly to love him is to believe his 
word and to do his work." 

In another passage, alluding to tendencies within our- 
selves, he remarks : 

" There are other two extremes in which we naturally 
and too often err, injurious to piety and peace. The one is 
undue reliance upon religious rites, or ascribing too much 
efficacy to the outward regular ministration of the Christian 
ordinances, independent of the faith and piety of those who 
perform or receive them. The other is too little reverence 
for the sacraments and other institutions of Christ and his 
apostles, placing undue reliance upon inward feelings and 
what is (not very properly) called experience. These are 
the Scylla and Charybdis of religious life. Thousands and 
millions thus turn to the right hand or to the left. They 
are perils to which we of the Episcopal Church, with all 
our best intentions to steer a middle course, are much 
exposed." 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 15T 

In December, 1S29, the Bishop yielded to the growing 
and urgent desire of his clergy that he should reside in a 
more central part of the Diocese, and resigned the charge 
of his parish in Bristol, amidst the affectionate regrets, 
though with the unmurmuring acquiescence of a people 
whom he had so long and so faithfully served in the Gos- 
pel. Between that time and the ensuing spring, his removal 
to Salem took place, and the vacant rectorship in Bristol 
was filled by his able and worthy successor, the Rev. Mr. 
Bristed. 

Meanwhile, however, God was saddening, still more 
deeply than ever, that portion of his days which he spent in 
Bristol. Death was to have one more victim from his 
family circle before he left the dwelling which had sheltered 
him in his many sorrows, as well as in his many joys. His 
son George, who had for several years been actively engaged 
in the ministry, with much of his father's character and vir- 
tues, and with bright prospects of usefulness and of happi- 
ness before him, having returned from a second visit to 
Cuba for his health, and learned the death of his wife and 
child just before his arrival in New- York, made his way to 
Bristol amidst longings after heaven, and a readiness to 
depart and be with Christ. The evidently near close of his 
illness prevented his father from attending the Annual Con- 
vention of the Diocese, and he therefore prepared and for- 
v/arded to the Secretary of that body his Annual Address, 
to be read after the opening of its session. It began thus : 

" Prevented, beloved friends and brethren, by the deeply 
afflictive dispensation of a wise and righteous God from 
being with you in Convention, I send you the Address 
which has been prepared for the occasion." 

And thus the message ended : " Since the above was 
written, my son, the Rev. George Griswold, after a long 
and distressing illness, has departed this life. His short 



158 MEMOIR OF 

career and earthly sorrows ceased yesterday, the 27th. 
Brethren, pray for me V 

It was all that the mourning parent had time to say. And 
it was enough. The response which he received from his 
beloved brethren showed that he was in their hearts, and 
that his announcement had awakened their most earnest 
prayers in his behalf. Not only did they send him their 
affectionate official condolence through their Secretary, but 
the Secretary himself, expressing the common sentiments 
of his brethren, and his own private and personal regards 
for the deceased, whom he had known from a school-boy, 
thus closes a letter full of beautiful and tender sympathy : 

* * * " These recollections, revived and deepened by 
the solemn dispensation of his early removal, I earnestly 
hope may be instrumental, througn Divine grace, of spiritual 
awakening and improvement, while they serve to add much 
interest to the precious exercise of prayer to God on your 
behalf, under the trials with w^hich, in his holy pleasure and 
unabated tenderness, he sees fit to visit you. May He who 
is able to turn darkness into light, and make of sorrow a 
blessing, visit you with the very richest and choicest conso- 
lations of his heavenly grace, in this season of affliction 
and trial. 

" Very respectfully and affectionately, 
" Your friend and servant, 

" Theodore Edson, Sec'y of Convention.''' 

After this pause in recurrence to the incidents of the fart 
few years, I proceed in the memoir. 

The year 1830 opens with the announcement of the 
Bishop's Volume of Sermons, as ready to issue from the 
press. It was a volume which he was induced to publish at 
ihe solicitation of his friends. It consists of discourses, 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 159 

prepared originally, not for the press, but for the pulpit, 
and printed with little or no alteration from their original 
manuscripts. He did not, of course, expect either pecu- 
niary emolument or literary fame from the publication. 
They were plain, useful sermons, on some of the most 
important doctrines and duties of our religion ; full of deep 
and sound views, written in excellent style, and evincive of 
the thoroughly evangelical character of their author. They 
were soon favorably noticed, both in this country and in 
Ed gland, and deservedly won for him the reputation of a 
sound and thorough divine, and of a writer at once devout. 
perspicuous, and chaste. They are well worthy of study. 
both by the private Christian seeking the cultivation of his 
religious affections, and by the theologian seeking deep and 
scriptural views of truth. " The great value of these ser- 
mons," says the editor of the Philadelphia Recorder, in a 
private letter to the Bishop, " and the great good they are 
doing, can not be over-estimated." 

On a tour in the month of June, this year, occurred an 
incident which forcibly illustrates a trait in the Bishop's 
character : I mean his invariable punctuality in meeting all 
his appointments for Episcopal visitations. 

The tour referred to led him through a part of Massa- 
chusetts into Rhode Island, and having reached Newport 
before the 10th of June, it became necessary to cross Nar- 
raganset Bay, in order to keep an appointment which he 
had made at Wickford, in the old St. Paul's, or Narragan- 
se4 Church. But a violent gale which had prevented an out- 
ward bound vessel from sailing for Cuba was still raging, 
and had kept the regular ferry packet from coming over on 
that day from Wickford to Newport. Here, indeed, was a 
difficulty which would have kept most men housed. The 
swelling Narraganset bowing its thousand waves before the 
og blast of a still powerful wind and tempest lay. eight 
miles broad, between him and his place of destination. Yi I 



160 



MEMOIR OF 



he could not give up without an effort, his purpose of being 
punctual to his engagement. By the offer of an extra 
reward, he induced a strong boatman, in an open sail-craft, 
to attempt the passage. They set forth together on the 
dangerous essay. But by the time they were midway on 
the water, the boatman felt the peril to be too great for 
farther progress. Addressing his passenger, therefore, he 
said : *• Bishop. I dare go no farther against such a wind as 
this!*' The announcement was full of import. Still, the 
Bishop was undismayed. He did not, indeed, emulate the 
moral sublime of the ancient conqueror, in the inquiry, 
"Quid times? Casarem vehis. Why fearest thou % Thou 
carriest Caesar." But rising above, into the higher sublime 
of a calm trust in Him who holdeth the waters in the hollow 
of his hand, he simply asked, " Why. what is the matter V 
" The craft has not ballast enough on her bottom/ 5 was the 
quick reply. ; * If she carried more ballast there, she might 
perhaps live through the bay." : ,: Would it help her," asked 
the Bishop. ,; if I were to lie down in the boat V' ~ No 
better ballast than that could she have," said the boatman. 
The suggestion was no sooner made than adopted. Casting 
himself at full length upon his face into the bottom of the 
boat with the weight of a strong frame much heavier than 
that of common men, the little vessel evidently felt the 
favor. She braced herself more strongly to the blast, and 
though in hourly peril of going down, yet, after long toil- 
ing, she reached Wickford harbor, and the Bishop stepped 
thankfully upon the firm land. Yet, so wet and incrusted 
had his hat and garments become under the gray brine 
which had been splashed over him, that the inhabitants of 
the village were scarcely able to recognize in him their old 
and well-known visitor. 

But upon reaching the house of the rector of the parish 
in season for the service which he had appointed, he found 
that he had not been expected, and that therefore the Church 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 161 

had not been opened. The violence of the storm kept 
every one at home. The rector himself was in utter amaze- 
ment at his arrival, and exclaimed, "Why, Bishop, I would 
not have crossed the Narraganset such a day as this for a 
warranty deed of the whole Narraganset country !" Nor 
would the Bishop for such an inducement as that. But 
under a sense of duty, he was ready to dare what no pecu- 
niary consideration could have bribed him to attempt. " I 
had made my appointments," said he, calmly, " and was 
not willing that the people should be disappointed through 
my fault," 

A similar illustration, though involving less of peril, oc- 
curred when on a visit, once, to one of the parishes in Mas- 
sachusetts. A sudden freshet had carried off the bridge 
which crossed a stream near the village. The stage-coach 
reached the crossing a short time before the hour of service ; 
but, though the freshet had in a measure subsided, and 
though the driver was strongly urged to ford the stream, 
yet he refused to go forward. Leaving the stage-coach, 
therefore, with the remark that he "must not disappoint 
the good people who were expecting him," the Bishop pulled 
off his boots and stockings, and with his bundle or valise 
under his arm, waded the stream, walked forward to the 
village, and was thus enabled to keep the appointment 
wlii eh he had made. 

It was scarcely an uncommon thing for him to arrive at 
the place where he was engaged to officiate, just in time for 
service; and in garments soaked by the rain in which he 
had been riding, to go through service and sermon, rather 
than keep the congregation waiting while he changed 
his dress. 

And now that 1 am in the way of illustrations on this 
point, I will give another instance of his punctuality, and at 
the same time, of his willingness to put himself to trouble, 
when it was thought that good might thereby be done, lie 



l62 MEMOIR OF 

was engaged to consecrate the new Church at Bangor, Maine; 
and several of his clergy had consented to accompany him 
There were two ways of reaching that City of the East ; 
the one by steamer, and the other by stage. And as the 
season of the year made travelling by land extremely 
tedious and uncomfortable, his clergy chose the former, as 
being at once comfortable, and if wind and tide favored, 
expeditious. But, as there was an u if" on that way, and as 
the mail-coach was ordinarily sure of reaching its destination 
with punctuality, even though it were to be dragged through 
the night, as well as through the mud, the Bishop chose 
this ; and the result was, that he reached Bangor in season, 
consecrated the Church at the hour appointed, and with the 
departing congregation, was just leaving the sanctuary as 
his more comfort-loving clergy reached the wharf of the 
steamer. 

The following letters will explain themselves : 

" Bristol, R. L, March 2, 1832. 
" Eight Reverend and Dear Sir : 

* * * * * * "For some months past, 
the Congregational minister of Bristol has from time to 
time pressed me to exchange pulpits with him. I have 
hitherto waived it. At length, this morning, the minister, 
with one of his deacons, came to me, as a committee, ap- 
pointed at a church-meeting, to propose an interchange of 
pulpits, or to receive and report to the Congregationalists 
the reason why I would not exchange. Finding it placed in 
this official, formal manner, I told the Committee that I 
should lay the proposal before you, as Bishop ; and what- 
ever was deemed right and proper in the premises, I should 
do it. The Committee then proposed that our societies," 
(congregations) " should unite in the monthly concerts for 
prayer to promote missionary efforts. I answered that I 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 103 

would write to you respecting this also. Be so obliging. 
when you have leisure, as to direct me what to do in both 
these cases. * * * * * * * 

"With perfect respect, 

"Your obedient servant, 

c *JoHH BRISTED. 

u Right Eev. Bishop Griswold." 

? Salem, March 15th. 1832. 
" Rev. axd Dear Sir : Yours of the 2d has been some 
days received. I should have answered you sooner but for 
ill-health, with which I have been confined for almost two 
weeks. 

M For what reason the Congregational minister of Bristol 
is so desirous, as you state, to exchange pulpits with you, I 
do not see. 1 can see no good, and I can foresee some evil, 
which will be likely to result from it. ' Tis well known that 
our Church is liberal. I think none more so, in the true 
sense of the word. And it has ever been particularly my 
wish to cultivate love and harmony among all Christian peo- 
ple, and to do nothing to increase and perpetuate the di- 
visions which unhappily exist. And Christians are now 
universally convinced that (to use a common vulgar phrase) 
we should agree to differ ; that each denomination should 
hip in their own way and according to what ibey think 
* agreeable to God's will. Generally, the Congrega- 
tionalists dislike our worship more than our people do theirs. 
If you take ours into their meeting-house, they will not be 
so well pleased or edified as with their own ; for they would 
lifer into the spirit of it : and our congregation will not 
■■' well edified with theirs. Both congregations will be 
•s by the exchange, in regard to their prayer of faith. 
And certainly neither of you two ministers will be willing, 
even for one day, to lay aside (to please men) the praj 



164 MEMOIR OF 

which he believes to be more acceptable to God, for others 
which he believes to be less so. 

" If it be said that the object is to promote brotherly affec- 
tion, that object is certainly excellent ; but it may, I think, 
be better attained in other ways which will be attended 
with no inconvenience. If any of your people desire occa- 
sionally to attend their worship, we have no rule against it. 

Dr. W and myself formerly had a union, which I think 

answered all the good purposes which you intend, without 
any of the evil consequences which may be feared ; that is, 
he officiated one Sunday evening in his own house and in 
his own way ; and I the next, in mine, alternately ; leaving 
all the people of both congregations free to attend either or 
both places as they pleased. Each house was then suffi- 
ciently large to accommodate all who attended the exercises. 
So far as my knowledge extends, attempts at union, where 
there is any thing unnatural or incongruous, have not pros- 
pered ; they have rather tended to jealousy and disunion. 
Congregationalists, Methodists, and Baptists may, with less 
unfitness, interchange, for their worship is very similar : 
but ours is radically different. 

K What is proposed in the other union of a monthly con- 
cert I know not. I think it probable they will not give up 
their way and conform to yours. Without a mutual con- 
formity, I see not how it can be truly called a union. I can 
only say generally, that I would have Episcopalians unite 
with all Christians, so far as they can do it without departing 
from their own principles. For the truth's sake give up 
every thing but the truth. But above all, if Christians 
would unite, ; let love be without dissimulation ;' banish 
from the heart all sectarian prejudices and evil surmisings ; 
let there be no underhand-plotting, nor secret devices ; and 
most of all, let Christians take heed how they speak against 
each other ; how they misrepresent the doctrines or the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 165 

principles of others. Cultivate that charity which thinketh 
no evil and which rejoiceth in the truth. 

•• Should it be said that our unwillingness to intermingle 
>vith others, as now proposed, is from illiberality or sec- 
tarism, it would be untrue, and of course uncharitable and 
wicked. We decline the union from a sense of propriety, 
from adherence to principle, and to avoid evil. 

" I might have added what is well known, and ought to 
be well considered, that the Congregationalists have rejected 
from their svstem some things which were universally held 
by Christians through the first fifteen centuries, and which 
we fully believe to be essential parts of Christianity. We 
have no wish to judge them ; they have full right to embrace 
what thoy think to be the truth ; but we must take heed to 
ourselves, and walk according to what we undoubtingly be- 
lieve to be the truth. 

" But I shall not enter into this point ; Jjiough it is the 

most essential in the question above considered. * * 
* * * * * * 

"Very affectionately yours, 

"Alexander V. Griswold. 
"The Rev. John Bristed.'' 

From this correspondence it is not to be inferred, on the 
one hand, that Mr. Bristed desired the interchange re- 
quested ; he was plainly enough opposed to it : while on 
the other hand, it is evident that the Bishop was writing 
more for the Committee who had waited on Mr. Bristed 
thai) for Mr. Bristed himself. His letter is a specimen of 
liis manner of dealing with questions like those proposed, 
lb- might have said at once, and in an offensive way, " Our 
fundamental principle, as Episcopalians, forbids such ex- 
changes." But he chose to show that on other grounds of 
abundantly sufficient strength, such exchanges are unde 
sirable; will ordinarily lead to more evil than good; and 



166 MEMOIR OF 

are therefore to be discouraged from a regard to the peace 
and harmony of all classes concerned. This, if his letter 
were shown to them, the Congregationalists of Bristol must 
have seen ; while the Christian spirit in which it was told 
them must have commended the Bishop's views to their en- 
tire approbation. Indeed, the reasons against the proposed 
exchanges, independently of that to which the Bishop 
merely alludes in the conclusion of his letter, are so clear 
and satisfactory, that whoever considers them attentively, 
must, I should suppose, see that a refusal to exchange 
pulpits in the way suggested springs from a wise and not 
from an uncharitable spirit. 

In the spring of 1832, the Church in Vermont completed 
its separation from the Eastern Diocese, by electing its first 
Bishop. This election having been made, the Convention 
followed it with a parting address to Bishop Griswold, which, 
as it is of high interest, I here insert. It belongs to the his- 
tory of him of whom I write : 

'• The Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
the State of Vermont, 

" To the Right Reverend Alexander V. Griswold, Bishop 
of the Eastern Diocese : 

" In assuming the station of a distinct and independent 
Diocese, we are reminded, at every step of our measures, of 
the relation which our Church, during the period of twenty 
years, has sustained toward you. Amidst the interest attend- 
ing this great and affecting crisis in our ecclesiastical con- 
cerns, our 'hearts are bowed as the heart of one man' at the 
thought of taking leave of him whose hands, after the man- 
ner of the holy Apostles, have been laid on us and on our 
children, blessing, confirming, and ordaining in God's name. 
When we look back to the period of your first visitations, 
and consider that we were thai 'the fewest of all people,' we 
feel thankfully sensible of that Providence which set you 



BISHOP GEISWOLD. 1(57 

over us in the Lord, and which enabled you, by example, 
counsel, and doctrine, to contribute much toward the revival 
of his work among us. And now, in the very fact of our 
separation, we make it manifest that the good hand of our 
God has hitherto rested on us, multiplying and strengthening 
us under your ministry, and at length granting us such pos- 
sessions and prospects, both spiritual and temporal, as seem 
to make it plain that we ought to ask of the great Head of 
the Church the entire services of a Bishop. This crisis has 
indeed been delayed through an extreme unwillingness to 
deprive ourselves of the ministrations of a bishop whom we 
so truly revere and love. And Ave come to our present 
measures only under the conviction that our churches need a 
degree of attention which no man can possibly render whose 
field of duty and weight of burdens are so great as yours. 
It may be truly said that the Lord has so multiplied the seed 
sown under your ministry, that the fruits have become more 
than you can gather. In compliance, therefore, with a sug- 
lon often repeated by yourself, we are at length con- 
strained to invite i another to enter into your labors, 5 in the 
full belief ; that both he that sowed, and he that shall reap, 
will rejoice together.' 

"And now, reverend father, while with grateful and affec- 
tionate hearts we take leave of you, ' sorrowing most of all 
that we shall see your face no more,' suffer us, as the child- 
ren of your prayers and labors of love, to beg an interest 
in your remembrance and in your daily supplications before 
the throne of grace. And be assured that toward you we 
shall never i o cherish a filial regard, nor will it cease 

to be our hearts" desire that the Lord will have you in 
his holy and special keeping, sealing your office and ministry 
with abundant effusions of his Holy Spirit and thus multi- 
plying your 'crowns of rejoicing in the l\<\\ of th 
Jesi 

* MiDDLEErfy. May 81, 1832." 



168 



MEMOIR OF 



This appropriate and touching tribute was signed by the 
thirteen clerical and thirty-one lay members of the Conven- 
tion which acted in taking leave of one Bishop and in elect- 
ing another. The feelings which it awakened in the bosom 
of the former can be more easily conceived than expressed. 

The Massachusetts Convention of 1832 was the scene of 
an exceedingly stormy contention for the supremacy on the 
part of two rival parties, who then, as since, existed not 
only in the Eastern Diocese, but in the Church at large. 
Increased importance was attached to the elections then 
made, because before the ensuing General Convention was 
to come the subject of Bishop Chase's resignation of the 
Diocese of Ohio, and of Bishop Mcllvaine's consecration as 
his successor. Nor was their importance overrated ; for 
when the General Convention came to act on the principal 
question before it, the vote in the House of Delegates being 
taken by States, there was but a majority of one in favor of 
accepting the resignation of Bishop Chase and of proceeding 
to consummate the action of Ohio ; and had the election in 
Massachusetts resulted otherwise than it did, our whole 
Church would inevitably have been precipitated upon a 
catastrophe, the disastrous consequences of which Omni- 
science alone could foresee, and Omnipotence alone avert. 

The pressure on the feelings of Bishop Griswold of all 
this period of agitation and change may, after the views 
already given of his character, be easily conceived. He 
suffered deeply but calmly. His spirit was afflicted, but his 
constancy was unmoved. His decisions and action were 
assailed, and he defended himself; but it was in his own 
way, without criminating others, and with a siirrple state- 
ment of his own principles of conduct, and of the facts in 
view of which he had acted. In one of his letters of self- 
defense, the original of which lies before me, and which was 
written at a time when one side accused him of acting too 
much, and another of not acting enough, in the scenes which 



BISHOP GRjISWOLD. 169 

were passing, (a fact which shows that, in what he did, he 
acted by himself and for himself, and just so far as his own 
judgment prompted,) he makes the following remarks, which, 
as they relate to himself alone, may with propriety be inserted 
here ; 

•• I am well aware how much I am accused of want of 
energy and decision. I know, too, as well as those who 
remind me of it, that had a clergyman under the jurisdiction 
of , done such a thing,'' (he alludes here to a cer- 
tain article which had just been published,) " he would soon 

have experienced the fate of , , etc. But I am not 

yet persuaded that the mild (and I trust impartial) maimer 
with which I have executed the office of a Bishop, is not 
according to the spirit of the Gospel and the example of its 
adorable Author. So far as my conduct has been according 
to God's word, I am satisfied with it. If a Bishop will 
become the head of a party, or strenuously enforce the 
views and promote the interests of one designation of reli- 
gionists, by them of course he will be highly extolled. Such 
was the merit of many saints of old. I covet no such 
fame ; and will never be either the head or the tool of a 
party. Whether I am called High-Church or Low-Church, 
I am totally indifferent ; for I can not easily decide which 
I most dislike. The former, it is well known, are the 
impatient of control — the least willing to be governed 

The canting language, a few years since so much used in 

Pennsylvania, about the Bishop's and the Bishop's 

vies, was, in my view, very contemptible ; and my prayer 

is never to hear it in this Diocese. It is well known that, in 

seasons of excitement, and when party spirit predominates, 

to be impartial satisfies neither side; but I had rather be 

1 for doing right than praised for doing wrong. One 

thing I will say, (call it boasting if you will,) in deli 

8 



170 



MEMOIR OF 



all proof to the contrary, that I have uniformly avoided 
cabals and intrigue, and have endeavored in some degree to 
follow the example of Him who ever spake openly, and in 
secret said nothing. My opinion, when proper to express it, 
I have been ready to give openly and, I trust, without the 
fear of man." 

To those who were with the Bishop through all the agi- 
tating events at which I have glanced, and who observed the 
meekly-calm and subdued yet intensely solicitous and watch- 
ful spirit with which he passed through this period of trial, 
the above remarks will appear a fit embodying of his mind : 
committed to none ; striving to do right by all ; bearing 
reproach meekly, yet, while standing under it, exclaiming 
manfully, "Strike, but hear me" 

The Eastern Diocese, at its formation, was designed for 
perpetuity. With its progress, however, under the foster- 
ing care of Bishop Griswold, it was found that such an union 
would be as unfavorable to the maturer strength of the Church 
as it had been indispensable in its weakness. Vermont, as 
we have seen, had already withdrawn ; and in September, 
1838, the Constitution was so amended as to provide for its 
dissolution on the death of its first Bishop. From this 
moment its existence became a mere matter of form, or at 
most furnished its Bishop with his annual opportunity of 
addressing, as usual, the assembled clergy of his jurisdiction. 
Action, legislative, missionary, and executive, now tended 
more strongly and more exclusively than ever to the Con- 
ventions of the separate parts of which the Diocese had been 
composed. During the years 1838 and 1839, New-Hamp- 
shire and Maine availed themselves of their constitutional 
privilege of withdrawing, by consent of the Bishop and of 
the other States, from the body, retaining only provisional 
jurisdiction from Bishop Griswold ; while Rhode Island, 
after a violent and somewhat disorderly effort to withdraw, 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 171 

finally voted to remain, principally on the ground of attach- 
ment to their Bishop, and a determination to stand by him 
while he lived. Thus the Diocese resembled the homestead 
of a grown-up family, the children of which are preparing 
to settle on their respective portions of the patrimonial 
estate, resolved each to cultivate with increased diligence 
and skill his own share ; while the aged parent, venerable in 
authority, and maintained in the comfort and the quiet of his 
old home, moves round among them, counselling all, labor- 
ing for all, and striving, w T ith his best remaining strength and 
wisdom, to perfect the establishment, and to promote the 
prosperity of all. 

At the organization of the Diocese, in 1810, so feeble was 
the Church in the respective States, and so powerful were 
the obstacles which hindered its growth, that the necessity 
which prompted their union generated also the idea of its 
perpetuation, at least beyond the life of any man then living, 
and suggested a corresponding provision for the election and 
support of an Episcopal succession. In this view, it was one 
of the most important organizations in our American Epis- 
copal Church. And yet, in less than thirty years, so silently 
yet effectually had the labors, example, and influence of its 
Bishop rolled those obstacles out of the way, and so gradually 
yet largely had the blessing of God multiplied the fruits of 
his ministry, that not only had the necessity for the union 
ceased to exist, but a contrary necessity for its dissolution 
had come in, and brought it virtually to an end, years before 
it reached the limit of its first Bishop's life. Henceforward, 
instead of one, start forth four, and running beside that of 
Vermont, they become Jive separate threads of narration to 
him who would write the future history of our New-England 
Episcopal Church. For, though no new bishop for any one 
of the separate parts was now chosen, yet from the moment 
when it became certain that the Diocese, as a whole, would 
not survive its first Bishop, it ceased entirely t<> be an object 



172 



MEMOIR OF 



of common interest ; and Massachusetts and Khode Island, 
as well as New-Hampshire and Maine, were as really distinct 
Dioceses, cultivating each its own separate interests and 
institutions — interests and institutions separate though not 
conflicting — as they would have been had even the name of 
the Eastern Diocese been no longer in existence. 

We have already seen that, upon the demise of Bishop 
White, in 1836, Bishop Griswold expressed a decided 
unwillingness to prepare the Pastoral Letter for the House 
of Bishops in the General Convention of 1838. So 
strongly, however, was he urged to this preparation by 
his brother Bishops, that he finally consented; and his 
first Pastoral Letter to our Church throughout the United 
States was read a few days only before the session of that 
Convention of the Eastern Diocese, the notice of which we 
have just closed. His health had been so much enfeebled 
and his voice so much affected by the dangerous illness of 
the previous year, that the reading of the letter before the 
two Houses was at his request assigned to Bishop Onder- 
donk, of New- York. It was an interesting paper, discussing 
no one subject at length, but touching upon a variety of 
important topics, rendered still more important by current 
events, and filled with the kind and candid views, the 
chastened and holy feelings, the sound and Scriptural 
principles, of its eminently Christian author. 

The Annual Convention of his own Diocese met in Sep- 
tember, 1839. At the previous session, in 1838, it had 
been proposed so to amend the constitution as to make the 
conventions of the diocese for the future triennial instead 
of annual. In view of the possibility of their adopting this 
proposed amendment at the present session, the Bishop 
addressed his clergy and laity as though this were probably 
the last meeting with them which he should ever be per- 
mitted to enjoy. He prefaced a view of the Diocese for 
the last twenty-eight years, and of the growth of the Church 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 173 

in the various States composing it, with the following refer- 
ence to himself; and few who heard him will ever forget 
the touching simplicity and pathos of manner with which 
he spake. Many heads fell upon heaving bosoms, and 
many tears dropped in silent places, while the holy man 
touched on his own ministry, and especially while he 
expressed his fear that he had been led to preach the 
Church more and Christ less than he ought to have done. 
Speaking of the proposed amendment of the constitution, 
he said : 

u Supposing it to be adopted, I may well consider this as 
the last time of my addressing the Convention of the East- 
ern Diocese. Happy would it be could I, with St. Paul, to 
the elders of Ephesus, say, ; I have kept back nothing that 
profitable unto you ; I have not shunned to declare 
unto you all the counsel of God.' 

•• It has no doubt been observed by many, perhaps by all 
of you, that in my visitations I have spoken much of the 
tenets, rights, and usages by which the Episcopal Church 
is distinguished from other Protestant Christians. I have 
endeavored to do it in such a manner as not to give needless 
offence, nor to increase or perpetuate the divisions which 
so unhappily exist. My intention in preaching so much on 
subjects which seem to be but of secondary importance has 
been the instruction of the people in what they were more 
generally ignorant of than of other parts of religion. To 
give to those who ask and are willing to hear a reason of 
the hope that is in us, provided we do it as an Apostle 
directs, ' with meekness and fear,' will have a good effect. 
Unhappily, in our sectarian controversies, the spirit of 
meekness is too little manifest, and many Christians 
advance their favorite dogmas without the appearance <-f 
any fear of being in error or causing division or being 
uncharitable. The too general ignorance or misappivhen- 



174 MEMOIR or 

sion of our distinctive principles makes it more necessary 
for us to explain or give the reason for what seems to them 
our peculiarities, than for other Christians of theirs. Our 
brethren of other Churches should think of this, and not 
be offended when we show the apostolic authority for what 
we practice and teach. But still, I am not without fears 
that I may have devoted too much of my time to preaching 
the Church rather than Christ. The doctrines of his cross 
are the most effectual in converting the heart and saving 
the soul. The fallen state of man, redemption by Jesus 
Christ, and justification through faith in his sacrifice for our 
sins, should be the main subjects of our public sermons and 
of our teaching from house to house." 

Alas! if he had such fears of bestowing a dispropor- 
tionate attention upon the building, to the neglect of its 
living occupant, albeit the great burthen of his long minis- 
try had been " Jesus Christ and him crucified," what must 
be the sad retrospect of some when, from a death-bed, or at 
the judgment-day, they are called to review their ministerial 
lives, and to see with what heated toils they have all along 
been working on the Church, and with what lack of zeal 
they have urged the gospel of Him who is Lord of the 
Church! 

The amendment of the constitution, above referred to, 
was called up after the delivery of the Bishop's address ; 
but upon debate it was rejected, and the venerable man 
lived to meet and address his Convention at three more of 
its customary annual sessions, in the enjoyment, too, of his 
customary health and strength both of body and of mind. 

Soon after the rising of this Convention, he received a 
letter of inquiry, to which he returned the following reply. 
His answer explains the subject of the inquiry, and also 
exposes the folly of that extreme theory into which some 
are ever prone to carry out the peculiarities of our Church. 



BISHOP ORIS WOLD. 175 

"Boston, October 26, 1839. 
c; Rev. and Dear Sir : 

"I have the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 21st, 
but, being about to set off on a journey, am obliged either 
to postpone the answer till my return, or to write in much 
haste. As I have chosen the latter, be pleased to excuse 
what may seem a neglect of full attention to the subject of 
your inquiry. 

u Permit me to say in reply, that in my judgment the 
notion maintained by some, that we must never in social 
worship use any prayers but those in the Prayer-Book, is 
unscriptural and injurious to our Church and to religion ; 
that of this our clergy are generally sensible in their use of 
other prayers ; as, for instance, in visiting the sick, though 
for this occasion the Church has provided a form, and 
ordered that it shall be used ; that, for occasions of social 
worship for which the Church has made no express pro- 
vision, the Bishop may set forth forms appropriate to such 
occasions ; and that our Church has made such provision 
but for morning and evening service. 

" Tlie form of Bishop Hobart for a third service' is an 
evident departure from the letter of the 45th Canon of 
1832 ; but we may reasonably suppose that this Canon, in 
its spirit^ has regard to the stated seasons of prayer and 
preaching when, certainly, the regular service, and no other, 
is to be used. 

••Il<>\v extensively the prayers which I have published 
are used in my Diocese I do not exactly know. By many 
of our clergy those of Bishop Hobart, in Sunday-schools 
especially, are used in preference. I designed them, gene- 
rally speaking, for extra occasions of social worship, when 
they might be more appropriate, and better express what 
was particularly desired to be offered in prayer, than the 
wry excellent, but more general forms of the Prayer-Book, 
and especially for such occasions of social worship as you 



176 MEMOIR OF 

mention — of ' an evening lecture' even, i in a lecture-room 
or school-house.' I know not why preaching or exhortation 
should alter the case. If, in all cases, we adhere to the 
strict, literal sense of the above-mentioned Canon, how can 
the Gospel, by us, be ever preached to the heathen 1 They 
who have attended the meetings of our General Board of 
Missions, must have seen what common-sense has taught 
our Bishops and clergy respecting the occasional use (in the 
Church, even) of other prayers besides those in the Prayer- 
Book. 

" I would write more upon this subject did not want of 
time compel me to lay down the pen. 
" With kind regards, 

" Your very affectionate friend, 

"Alex. V. Griswold. 

"The Kev. Gurdon S. Coit." 

The prayers of which the Bishop speaks in the above let- 
ter as his own, are contained in the volume which he issued 
several years before this date, and which has successively 
passed through several editions. They are a miscellaneous 
collection, partly in the language of the Prayer-Book, and 
partly in that of other authors, but very largely original ; 
adapted to a great variety of occasions, and abounding in 
strains of deep and fervent devotion. Perhaps, however, 
it may be questioned whether in this work he has succeeded 
so well as he would have done, if, instead of attempting to 
combine the various forms of others with his own compo- 
sition, he had simply given himself up to the easier flow of 
his own worshiping spirit, filled as it was with the richness 
of the inspired word, and of our own Liturgy, and gifted as 
it was from the teachings of that Divine Illuminator who 
helpeth all our infirmities, and without whose aid we can 
never acceptably worship the Father. 

His unlessened reluctance to prepare the Pastoral Letter, 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 177 

and the now failing state of his health, induced him in 1841 
to address letters to Bishop Moore, the next in seniority, 
and Bishop Meade his assistant, requesting them to take 
measures for its preparation. They, however, urged it upon 
him most earnestly, and his health was subsequently so far 
restored that he not only wrote that paper but also was 
present at the General Convention in October, and read it 
before the two Houses in joint session. He chose for his 
subject, the Doctrine of our Church on the Article of Justifi- 
cation by Faith, in connection with that on the necessity and 
place of Good Works ; or the double question, What must we 
believe, and what must we do, in order to be saved ? His 
discussion of it was clear, able, and full of the marrow of 
the Bible. It was received with an expression of universal 
approbation ; so much so, that, upon retiring from the Con- 
vention, he expressed his fear that he had not been rightly 
understood, or that if so, he had not succeeded in placing 
his true views distinctly before the two Houses, inasmuch 
as he had certainly intended to show that the doctrine of our 
Church is not that held by the members of the Tractarian 
School. The truth is, it seems to have been expected that 
he would assume a controversial attitude, and attack by 
name the theology of the Tracts. He did not do so. His 
discussion was direct. It gave no side-blows at specific the- 
ories. It went straight forward with the doctrine of the 
Bible and the Articles. It was therefore impossible to dis- 

\q with him without at least appearing to disagree both 
with the standard of revealed truth and with the teachings 
of our own Church. 

It can not indeed, be denied, that had he chosen for Lis 
theme the single point of justification by faith, he would 
doubtless have brought out more palpably the difference 
between our doctrine and that of the Tractarian School, 

iiise the limitation of his theme would have given him 
more scope for amplification. But as a brief treatise on the 

8* 



178 MEMOIR OF 

true harmony between our two doctrines of justification by 
faith, and of the necessity of good works ; or, on the real 
agreement of ihe Apostles Paul and James in these funda- 
mental articles of our religion ; the letter is an admirable 
production and well worth careful study. Some of its 
thoughts are like the " apples of gold in pictures of silver.*' 
But however studiously the Pastoral Letter avoided all 
direct allusion to the controversy which was agitating our 
Church, its author had occasion, before proceeding to the 
General Convention, to show, by no equivocal manifestation, 
how he stood affected toward that controversy. I allude to 
what transpired at the Annual Convention of his own Dio- 
cese in September 1841. Two of his clergy had seen fit to 
introduce into their Churches certain chancel arrangements, 
favorite with the disciples of the Tractarian School, if not 
peculiar to them. In visiting their parishes, these things 
struck him with surprise as indicative of a theological lean- 
ing which he had not expected to find in any part of his 
Diocese. Its very first manifestation, therefore, he at once 
determined to mark with his decided disapprobation ; not 
because any peculiar position of the material things of the 
Church was, in itself, essential ; but because, under the inter- 
pretation of circumstances, it was an index to the approach 
of errors which he considered fatal to the purity and life of 
the Gospel. In his annual Address for this year, therefore, 
we find him adverting to this subject in these terms : 

" It is pleasing to see the improvement which is generally 

being made in the construction of our churches. St. 's, 

in P , is a beautiful, and for the most part, a convenient 

church. But I was pained in noticing the uncouth and incon- 
venient arrangement of the chancel. I trust that none in 
this Convention need to be reminded of the absurdity of 
going back to the dark ages of Christianity for the models 
of our churches, or for the manner of worshipping in them ; 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. § 179 

or of adopting any of the fooleries of ignorance and super- 
stition. God requires us to act as rational beings, not as 
idolatrous heathen. All the services should be performed 
m a place and manner the most commodious to the minister 
and the people. Whether he preaches, or prays, or admin- 
isters the ordinances of Christ, he should be in the view of 
each and of all the congregation present. And in prayer it 
is quite as fitting that he should face them as that they 
should face him. To turn from them to the communion 
table implies the supposition that God is particularly present 
there, and sanctions the abominable doctrine of Transubstan- 
tiation. God has promised to dwell in the hearts of his 
worshipping people ; and Christ has expressly declared that 
where a few of them are gathered together in his name, 
there he is in the midst of them. We are sure, then, that 
Christ is. by his Spirit, among the people; but we have no 
ranee that lie is on the table more than in any other 
part of the church. Our bodies are the temples of the 
Holy Ghost. But God has no visible representation on the 
earth, and forbids our making any ; his likeness is to be 
formed in our hearts/' 

More briefly, but in the same tone, he noticed the pecu- 
liarities in the other of the two Churches to which I have 
red. 

•• With sorrow I add, (after having noticed the pecuniary 
j ion of the parish,) that I was pained and mortified at 
derangement of the reading-desk and the com- 
munion-table, and at other exhibitions within the chancel, 
evidently corresponding with the idolatrous conceits of 
Christians in those corrupt ages of the Church which some 
affect to call primitive. In regard to this, their house is now 

in a worse ^tate than St. 's, in P , or than any other 

nt Church that I ever beheld. But it may easily be 



180 MEMOIR OF 

restored to what is fitting and convenient ; and, as I hope 
soon will be. Let us not look back to Egypt, lest we perish 
in the wilderness" 

These notices, it must be confessed, are sufficiently 
pointed. Whatever effect, however, they may have had 
on one of the parishes referred to, their effect on the other 
was soon apparent. But it so happened that the alterations 
which were made in consequence of the strictures passed on 
the unpalatable innovation, instead of being a return to the 
customary arrangements of our chancels, were, if possible, a 
wider departure from them. This drew forth, in his annual 
address for 1842, the following repeated notice: "In my 

late visit to , * ' ' : *" * ' * * * * it was with 

no little pain that I found such further change and derange- 
ment in the chancel, desk, etc, of their Church, that the 
convenience for administering confirmation and the other 
Christian ordinances is very much diminished ; and all this 
to render, it seems, the whole more conformable to the 
superstitious fooleries of the dark ages of the Church." 

His former notice had led to a private, this produced an 
official correspondence ; and as it is ' official, and therefore 
belongs to the public — especially, as the Bishop has been 
much censured for these portions of his address, without 
any defense of his course, and as what passed will illustrate 
a portion of the Bishop's character, and of the latest times 
in which he lived — I feel at liberty to give the letters which 
passed on this occasion as they lie before me ; for obvious 
reasons omitting names, and recording only facts and state- 
ments. The former of the letters is from the Wardens and 
Vestry of the Church in question, dated 

" , Nov. 25th, 1842. 

" Eight Eev. and Dear Sir : 

"At a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Church 

in this place, for the purpose of taking into consideration 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 181 

the present relations of this Church with the diocese to 
which it geographically belongs, it was unanimously resolved, 
that a committee be requested to address the Right Rev. 
Bishop Griswold, and respectfully convey to him the senti- 
ments of this body — which are also those of the whole 
parish, with few or no exceptions — touching the existing 
unhappy condition of things. The undersigned, in obedi- 
ence to this direction, ask leave now to call your atten- 
tion to several matters in which this parish feels deeply 
interested. 

" You will recollect, esteemed Sir, that in your annual 
Address before the Convention held at Dedham, Sept. 22, 
1841, you made the following observations in regard to our 
Church : 

" ' With sorrow I add, that I was pained and mortified 
at the strange derangement of the reading-desk and the 
communion-table, and at other exhibitions within the chan- 
cel, evidently corresponding with the idolatrous conceits of 
Christians in those corrupt ages of the Church which some 
affect to call primitive. In regard to this, their house is now 

in a worse state than St. 's, in P , or than any 

other Protestant church that I ever beheld. But it may be 
restored to what is fitting and convenient, and, as I hope, 
s< h m will be. Let us not look back to Egypt, lest we perish 
in the wilderness.' 

"This rebuke, severe, humiliating, and distressing as it 
. as will in its immediate bearing as in its imminent 
consequences, we bore with patient submission, and in 
silence, persuading ourselves that however painful to us and 
injurious in its effects upon the Church, it was undoubtedly 
jned for our good; and that, although we were not 
knowingly or willfully guilty of the wickedness imputed, we 
might, nevertheless, unconsciously have given cause for 
your reproof or admonition ; and however much we might 
deplore so public a reprehension and so permanent a record 



182 MEMOIR OF 

of our alleged faults, yet we felt unwilling to complain 
against what we admitted to be an exercise of your rights, 
or to murmur at what we presumed to be an act of duty. 

"Our first effort, therefore, after the publication of those 
remarks, was to remove, so far as we could judge requisite, 
in the absence of any authentic information or official in- 
structions in the premises, every matter, thing, or usage 
that in our opinion could possibly provoke any further ani- 
madversions of this nature. We might enter into minute 
particulars, but they are needless at this time. Suffice it to 
say, that at a considerable expense, defrayed by private 
subscription, our chancel was newly arranged with an earn- 
est wish to conform to what we conjectured (having no 
positive guidance) might meet your views, and with an 
eye to the security of every convenience which its limited 
dimensions would admit. We then flattered ourselves that 
at your next ensuing visitation we might peradventure 
obtain the approbation of our revered Diocesan for what 
we had accomplished ; or, at least, for our honest attempts 
at improvement, escape additional censure. Judge, then, 
dear sir, of our disappointment, our astonishment and grief, 
when, without any preliminary monition, we beheld in your 
recent address before the Convention at Charlestown on 
the 27th September last, this cutting and withering repri- 
mand : 

" < In my late visit to , twenty-two persons were con- 
firmed ; but it was with no little pain that I found such 
further change and derangement in the chancel, desk, etc., 
of their Church, that the convenience for administering con- 
firmation and the other Christian ordinances is very much 
diminished ; and all this to render, it seems, the whole more 
conformable to the superstitious fooleries of the dark ages 
of the Church.' 

"After what we have declared relative to our intentions 
and governing principles in making the alterations in ques- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 183 

tion, it would, perhaps, be superfluous to plead our inno- 
cence of the allegation involved in the above sentence. 
Justice to our own character, however, and a religious 
regard for truth demand of us a formal renunciation of the 
motive therein ascribed — that of designedly deranging a 
portion of the interior of our church-edifice in order that 
the most sacred solemnities of our service may be identified 
with ' the superstitious fooleries of the dark ages !' It is 
our firm conviction that how well advised soever you may 
have deemed yourself before giving utterance to this accu- 
sation, we have, nevertheless, been made the unoffending 
victims of slanderous aspersions, proceeding originally 
either from persons who are not communicants in our 
Church, or from misinformed and prejudiced dissenters, or 
from thoughtless, unbaptized individuals, possibly of our 
own congregation, but irregular attendants, and who take 
but little interest in the reputation or progress of our infant 
parish. Under this impression, we are directed to solicit 
of you a full and candid enumeration of those peculiar 
forms, ceremonies, arrangements, ornaments, or other mat- 
ter, known to you to be in use with us, and which you con- 
sider either as approximating to the idolatrous conceits and 
superstitious fooleries of corrupt ages, or in any manner 
inconsistent with the established or recognized usages of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. And, 
moreover, in order that Ave may meet our accusers face to 
face, or least convince you that they are not of our com- 
munion, but are rather the enemies of our peace and wel- 
fare, We respectfully ask you to furnish us with their names, 
especially of those upon whose testimony was founded a 

recent letter from you to the Rev. Mr. . 

" We need not enlarge, sir, upon the cruel effects of 
judgments ex parte, nor need we remind you how tittle 
able we are to endure general denunciations from high 
places, growing out of specifications never presented to us 



184 MEMOIR OF 

for investigation, and which, remaining uncontroverted, must 
not only deprive us of those sympathies we so much need, 
but affix a lasting stigma upon the little Church here planted, 
and even by implication, in some degree, upon the whole 
body of Christians to which we claim to belong. 

" Finally, we are devoted, heart and soul, to the cause 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. We desire to add 
nothing that she, our Holy Mother, does not enjoin for her 
services, nor to omit any thing that she prescribes. Hoping 
soon to be favored with a reply, and that this painful subject 
may be happily settled, we subscribe ourselves, 
" Most affectionately, 

" Yours in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

44 — , V Committee. 

" The Et. Eev. Alex. V. Griswold." 

A reply they did soon receive ; and as it reveals the true 
state of the case with sufficient clearness, and shows how 
far they were practically governed by their expressed 
desire neither to add to what our Church enjoins nor to 
omit what she prescribes, I shall insert it without other 
comment here than that it is, as usual, but " the rough 
draught" of what was sent, and that it seems to want some 
sentence or sentences at its conclusion. It is doubtless, 
however, the bodv of his answer. 

" Boston, Nov. — , 1842. 
" Gentlemen : 

" I have just received yours of the 25th, complaining 
somewhat severely of some remarks in my last two ad- 
dresses to our Conventions; and will endeavor briefly to 
give such answer as you require. 

"And first, in regard to the alterations, of which J 
expressed a disapprobation, I supposed, and indeed then had 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 185 

no doubt, that they were made at the suggestion and through 

the influence of the Rev. Mr. ; and I thought and still 

think that I had good reasons for supposing it ; and, so far as 
I know, it is the opinion of all of our clergy who have in 
the last year or two officiated in your Church. But I am 
told in your letter that they are such as the ' whole parish, 
with few or no exceptions,' approve of. If so, I regret my 
having ascribed them to Mr. ? s influence. You cer- 
tainly have a right to make any alterations that you please 
in your own building. Had they (as I and all others whom 
I have heard speak on the subject supposed) been made in 
compliance with the wishes of a young man in deacon's 
orders, who did not belong to this Diocese, and was officiat- 
ing in violation of our Canon, he merited more reproof 
than my letter to him contained. The reason for my 
refraining so long in silence I gave him. 

u I am well aware that there is a new sect lately sprung 
up among us called Puseyites, or Low-Papists, who have, 
chiefly in England, written, and preached, and published 
much against the Reformation, and are endeavoring to brin^ 

O 7 DO 

back into the Church of England many of those supersti- 
tious mummeries and idolatrous practices, for protesting 
against which so many of her pious Bishops and other minis- 
ters have been burnt at the stake. The High-Papists and 

-Protestants are both rejoicing at this threatened divi- 
sion in the Episcopal Church, hoping to profit, and the 
Papists have already profited by our dissensions. The cry 
of Popery against us has hitherto caused our Church to be 
small in this country. This prejudice was fist being 
removed, when a really backward tendency toward Popery 
arose, and is now likely to revive and strengthen it. But 1 
trust in God that a large majority of our people will remain 

(fast to the great principles and to the simple usages 
of the Reformation, and of our own Protestant Episcopal 
Church, 



186 MEMOIR OF 

" What you mean by saying that you were not ' know- 
ingly or willfully guilty of the wickedness imputed,' I do 
not understand, as I have not 'knowingly or willfully' 
imputed wickedness to any one. Should you make your 
Church wholly Popish, which you have a good right to do, 
I should not ascribe it to any wicked motive, but charitably 
believe that you were actuated by good intentions. I think, 
too, that I have a right to express my opinion of the altera- 
tions made without being justly accused of cruelty, or of 
ascribing evil motives to those who have made them. 

" You tell me that a part has been done to render the 
chancel more conformable to my views. Is it not somewhat 
strange that you should do this without being at any pains 
to ascertain, as you very easily might have done, what my 
views were ? Or did I ever complain of the chancel as your 
former minister left it ? On the contrary, did I not view 
it, and praise it with much pleasure? There was then a 
very convenient reading-desk, and such a one is among the 
greatest conveniences in the performance of divine service. 
Since that time, I have observed that it is all torn away, and 
I believe cut to pieces ; though this I will not affirm. Then, 
also, there was a communion-table, very suitable and in sight 
of the whole congregation. Since, I have seen, instead, an 
edifice like a Popish altar, above a flight of many steps, 
very inconvenient for ministrations at the Lord's table ; and 
there were too evidently indications of idolatrous reverence 
paid to it. I saw also a picture standing at the back of the 
altar, such as the Papists avowedly and very much worship. 
Pictures were introduced into churches about the seventh 
and eighth centuries. The more pious Christians opposed 
it strenuously, and foretold what soon happened — that they 
would be worshipped. Before the Madonna, and on what 
should be the communion-table, I saw flowers strewn ; and 
there too stood candles in the day time ; whether they are 
ever lighted in the day time I did not inquire. These, too, 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 1ST 

are among 'the superstitious fooleries of the dark ages.' 
Formerly, the railing of the chancel was clear for many to 
kneel at communion and confirmation ; but in my last visit 
it was exceedingly encumbered. The stool, or place for the 
minister in preaching, is far the most awkward and incon- 
venient that I ever beheld. That, and something like a 
reading-desk, and a bridge or platform, leading from the 
chancel to a place where baptism was performed, occupied 
so much of the chancel that (I confidently repeat) ' the con- 
venience for administering confirmation and the other 
Christian ordinances is very much diminished.' 

" Your minister wore such a dress as I had never before 
seen ; and some of the trappings and other parade, I have 
reason to believe, were omitted on that occasion. But I 
saw enough to justify in my own mind what I have said on 
the subject. And never before did I see a minister go 
without the railings of the chancel to administer baptism. 

" Now all these changes, and what to me are ' derange- 
ments,' do actually, and in fact, 'render the whole more 
conformable to' (what almost all Protestants deem) ' the su- 
perstitious fooleries of (what are usually called) • the dark 
- of the Church.' But if I am to understand you, gentle- 
men, as saying that these changes were not made in com- 
pliance with the wishes of Mr. , and that in making 

them, you had no intention ' of rendering the whole more 
conformable' to what was practised in the Romish Church 
from the eighth century to the Reformation, then I am bound 
to believe, and shall be ready to acknowledge, that in 
regard to the intention I was mistaken. But that such a 
coincidence should have been unintentional is a wonder 
indeed." 

After this view of the case, to which the strictures in the 
Addresses applied, (and it is well understood that the view 
even falls within the limits of the innovations actually made,) 



188 MEMOIR OF 

it is not dillicult to see that there was abundant ground for 
the Bishop's animadversions. The reason why he chose to 
treat the case in this official way, and not by earlier and 
private admonition, is evident. The young clergyman in 
Deacon's orders, under whose ministry these changes were 
taking place, belonged not to Bishop Griswold's jurisdiction. 
He had not transferred, nor by any considerations which 
were presented to him could he be induced to transfer, his 
canonical residence from the Diocese to which he belonged, 
to that in which for so long a time he had been laboring as 
the regularly employed minister of a parish. Notwithstand- 
ing his position there was in contravention of one of our 
Canons, he still held that position, and while amenable only 
to another Bishop, persisted in carrying out his views and 
effectuating his changes in one of the parishes of Bishop 
Griswold's Diocese. For a long time the Bishop forebore 
official notice ; doubtless in the hope, either that the young 
minister would at length transfer his canonical residence, 
and thus become, like his other clergy, amenable to himself; 
or that the force of public opinion would induce him to 
conform to general usage, and thus render any notice of the 
case unnecessary. But when he found all hope disap- 
pointed, and the increasing innovations adopted, render- 
ing the case ail offense to almost every portion of the 
Diocese, he forebore no longer ; and as the young minister 
chose to render no account of his matters to the Bishop in 
whose Diocese he was laboring, so the Bishop chose to 
administer reproof in his own form and manner, without 
asking the subject of it how he would like the application. 

We are now among the latest official acts in the life of 
the revered subject of these memoirs. The Convention of 
the Eastern Diocese in Charlestown, at which he delivered 
the Address last quoted, was the latest which he ever 
attended ; and probably it was the happiest at which he 



BISHOP GKI3WOLD. 189 

was ever present. The period to which I formerly adverted 
had arrived ; the period when the fires of disunion, so far at 
least as any visible manifestation was concerned, had burnt 
out, and when a sweet and sacred calm seemed spread 
almost everywhere over the face of things under his 
charge. His parishes were almost all prosperous ; and 
with but here and there an unimportant exception, every 
thing conspired to draw all hearts toward each other, as 
though a gracious spirit had been in uncommon measure 
poured forth upon all. This state of things he hailed as a 
blessed harbinger of coming good to his beloved flock, 
amidst the dangers which were besetting the Church at 
large, from those extensive inroads of error to which he 
could not close his eye. It was but natural, therefore, that 
he should allude in his Address to what was so peculiarly 
gratifying to his feelings, both as a Christian and as a 
Bishop. 

" In viewing the state of our Churches," says he, " there 
are several things which rejoice my heart, and increase, I 
trust, my thankfulness to God. One is, that our parishes 
are now nearly all supplied, and we may believe well 
supplied, with officiating ministers. Another, and a very 
pleasing circumstance, is the spirit of love and harmony 
and brotherly kindness which so happily prevails, and 
seems to increase among the clergy of this Diocese. And 
I may add, that so far as I can judge, our clergy are becom- 
ing more and more convinced of the importance of preach- 
ing the doctrines of the cross and the evangelical truths of 
God's holy word. It seems to be a confirmation of the 
words of the prophet Isaiah: 'When the enemy shall come 
in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a stand- 
ard against him.' The faithful preaching of Christ is a 
'''//-'/. and the only standard that is sufficient to repel 
every spiritual foe, and ' to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked. 1 " 



1 90 MEMOIR OF 

But one of the most cheering incidents which he had to lay 
before this Convention, and that with a record of which he 
brought his address to a close, was the very recent and most 
harmonious election, by the Convention of Massachusetts, of 
an assistant Bishop. Measures preparatory to this election 
had for some months been in train, and now they had just been 
brought to a happy issue. The Massachusetts Convention 
closed its session the day before that on which he was then 
speaking, and the address which he delivered to that body 
had come over the minds of his clergy almost like a Pente- 
costal spirit of grace. It ought to be inserted here in full, 
and should be, had not these memoirs been already extended 
much beyond their originally contemplated limits. For the 
present it must be sufficient to refer the reader to the whole 
Journal of that special Convention before which this docu- 
ment was delivered, as the best means of setting him feel- 
ingly amidst the happy influences which presided over those 
important doings of our Massachusetts Church. As a valu- 
able substitute, however, for his address before that body, I 
add here the brief closing paragraph, to which I have already 
adverted, in his address of the next day, before the Conven- 
tion of the Eastern Diocese in Chariest own — the last words 
which he ever uttered to the assembled body of his clergy 
and laity : 

" Yesterday, as you all, no doubt, well know, the State 
Convention of Massachusetts had a special session in Trinity 
Church, Boston, for the very important purpose of electing 
one to be an assistant Bishop in that State. And if any 
thing can cause us to thank God and take courage, his mer- 
ciful goodness, vouchsafed to us on the occasion, must have 
that effect. Though Christian love and brotherly affection 
have been so remarkable, and for years so evidently increas- 
ing among us, yet, on an occasion so very interesting to all, 
and so exciting, it was reasonable to apprehend some conflicr 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 191 

of opinions and diversity of judgment. Who, then, does not 
perceive the hand of God, and his answer to our united 
prayers, in the perfect union and wonderful harmony which, 
through the whole transaction, prevailed? Such entire una- 
nimity, on a like occasion, has never, we may venture to say, 
been before witnessed in our country. It is most comforting 
proof that the Spirit which was in our Saviour Christ is with 
us ; and may He give us a]l grace thankfully to cherish it. 

" The person elected, you also know, is the Rev. Manton 
Eastburn, D.D., of New- York. And a call in which the 
hand of an overruling Providence is so visible he will, we 
trust, think it his duty to accept. May the Lord give us 
hearts to be duly thankful for all his mercies, and grace to 
show our thankfulness by making a right use of them." 

While matters were in train preparatory to the consecra- 
tion of Dr. Eastburn, Bishop Griswold was solicited, and 
very cheerfully yielded to the solicitation, to visit Richmond, 
Virginia, for the purpose of presiding at the consecration of 
Dr. Johns, who had, the previous spring, been elected assistant 
Bishop hi that Diocese. When Bishop Gadsden, of South- 
Carolina, was consecrated in the summer of 1840, the season 
being unfavorable to a visit so far south as Charleston, the 
candidate journeyed to Boston, and his consecration took 
place in Trinity Church. But now, the season being favor- 
able to a southern journey, Bishop Griswold, although con 
scious, by monitions within, of his special liability to sudden 
death, yet felt pleasure in yielding to the strong wish which 
was expressed, that the consecration of Dr. Johns might take 
place in the city of his future residence. This wish was not, 
indeed, unreasonably urged. Says the good Bishop Meade, 
(as whose assistant Dr. Johns had been elected,) in one of 
his letters on the occasion: "Much gratified as we all would 

"a inly be to have you with us on the interesting i 
mentioned in our correspondence, yet we certainly would 



192 MEMOLR OF 

not wish it if it is to be a source of risk or pain to you. 
Much rather, I am sure, would we all come to you, although 
it would be gratifying to many in Virginia to have the con- 
secration in Richmond. Still, however, we will cherish the 
hope that God may strengthen you, so that you may perform 
the journey without injury." * * * * "I can truly 
sympathize with you in the infirmity of which you complain, 
as it is the same which afflicts myself, and makes me to feel 
that ' in the midst of life I am in death.' " 

Thus kindly and considerately solicited, he with readiness 
complied, feeling that he was in God's hands, and that, if 
sudden death were appointed him, it was a question of small 
moment where it happened, so be that it found him ready 
and in the midst of duty. 

The consecration of Dr. Johns took place on the 13th of 
October, 1842, and in "the Monumental Church" in Rich- 
mond. It was a solemn scene. On the spot where once 
the merciless flames devoured the thronged attendants of the 
theatre now stood the consecrated house of prayer, and in 
that house stood holy men, commissioning one of the chief 
ministers of the Lord of life ; and as they imposed the or- 
daining hand, two of them, at least, felt that, even under the 
shelter of that fane, they were, in a special sense, but in the 
midst of death. 

The arrangements preparatory to the consecration of Dr. 
Eastburn being now complete, that last ordaining act in the 
life of Bishop Griswold took place on the 29th of December, 
1842, and in Trinity Church, Boston. That, also, was a 
solemn scene, but its deep interest sprung from different 
causes. To feci as multitudes felt on that high day to our 
Massachusetts Church, we must take a glance at what, for 
many years, had been transpiring. 

When Bishop Griswold entered on his duties as ecclesi- 
astical head of the Eastern Diocese, difficulties, as we have 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 193 

seen, of various name, thronged his way into the future. 
These difficulties, as we hare also seen, continued to meet 
him, in some of their ever-changing forms, till almost the 
last clay of his life. And yet, such had proved the strength 
and firmness of his character, the hi^h consistency and blame- 
lessness of his life, the sweet peacefulness and conciliatory 
tone of his counsels, the unquestionable piety of his heart, 
and the unimpeachable orthodoxy of his doctrines, that, from 
the beginning to the close of his Episcopate, the Church, on 
the whole, amidst many dark clays, indeed, was always pros- 
perous under his care, growing quietly in numbers and in 
spirituality, and gaming steadily, especially towards the 
close, both in union and in resources. Before him hostile 
prejudice stood self-disarmed, and in him the sons of the 
Pilgrims learned to respect, and, in the case of very many, 
to love, the Church against which their fathers had reared 
the standard of unyielding opposition. 

For some time before the period which we have now 
reached, the main source of anxiety to him lay in the unu- 
sually uncertain tenure by winch he held his mortal life — an 
uncertainty growing out of a disease of the heart ; consistent, 
it is true, with ordinarily great strength and comfort of body, 
yet suggesting the constant apprehension of sudden death. 
This apprehension distressed him, not because he feared to 
die, (for in this respect he stood continually on the ' ; watch" 
and in ; * readiness to depart,") but because, in case of his 
Ion decease, the Church of his affections and his care 
tit become distracted in the choice of his successor, and 
thus the ripening fruits of his toils and his prayers take 
detriment. All other sources of trial peculiar to his own 
Diocese had at length disappeared, and his way lay, other- 
wise, smooth before him on his descent to the resting-place 
of the faithful. But this circumstance continued to give him 
sensible disquiet, and mingled whatever of bittern-— be 
tasted in the residuum of bis life. 

9 



194 



MEMOIR OF 



Even this, however, was now kindly removed, and thus 
the peacefulness of his evening days was left complete. The 
little band of clergy, whom he found sixteen in number, and 
thinly scattered over almost the whole of New-England, with 
scarce strength to stand erect under the pressure of their dif- 
ficulties, had been multiplied to more than a hundred, confi- 
dent in the esteem of a multitude of hearts, and strong in 
the resources of thousands of hands. And now, as one of 
the latest smiles on him of approving Heaven, their main 
body in Massachusetts were found ready to unite, with one 
heart, upon one man, whom he might set over them in the 
Lord, and to whom, after his departure, they might look, as 
the object of their one choice and of their many prayers, to 
go before them, under God's guidance, in the Church, and to 
carry forward, by God's help, the great good work of his 
life. 

In this graciously-ordered result the aged Bishop found 
rest indeed ; and the day when, with the Bishops who joined 
him, he consecrated his successor in Massachusetts, was to 
him the beginning of his best days of earthly peace. So far 
as we may speak thus of human lot, he then began to walk 
joyfully and with unmingled satisfaction amidst his great 
household of spiritual children, and on through the still 
bright shadows of his eventide. 

Such were the circumstances which, drawing their power 
from the depths of thirty-two past years, conspired to 
increase the interest of the scene which presented itself in 
Trinity Church, Boston, on the 29th of December, 1842. 
His own clergy and others from different States were there 
in long array. The spacious Church was crowded with many 
of the elite of intelligent New-England. And amidst the 
whole stood the aged man, his form still erect, his head white 
with the snows of almost four-score years, and his face lifted 
towards heaven, overspread with the radiance of a holy smile. 
Nor were there any present (familiar with the inner secret 



BISHOP GKISWOLD. 195 

of that smile) who failed to sympathize with him in the high 
experience of that hour. To multitudes the scene and the 
emotion which it awakened are still vividly present. They 
still see the venerable Bishop, as he stood before thousands 
in the house of prayer, and as, amidst solemn rite and sublime 
ceremonial, he laid his aged hands on the head of one whom 
his sons in the Church had bidden among tham, to be their 
future shepherd under Christ. They hear him yet, as he 
lifted his trembling voice in accompanying prayer for the 
Spirit of Grace to descend on the bending subject of his inter- 
cessions, and endow him richly for his high and holy work. 
And then, as the rite was done, amidst solemn bursts of liar 
mony and the closing seal of sacrament, they see him still, 
as he went his way with thankful heart, blessing God for hia 
goodness, and rejoicing that, at length, the Lord was with 
them of a' truth, in the counsels of peace, in the power of 
unity, and in the fullness of the Gospel. 

But although Bishop Griswold was thus relieved of the 
last source of anxiety, so far as his own Diocese was con- 
cerned, and in a way which furnished him with a compara- 
tively youthful and a well-furnished assistant in his labors, yet 
it must not be inferred that he sunk into indifference to the 
general welfare of the Church, or even into inactivity in that 
portion of it over which he had -o long watched. 

In regard to the latter, (his own Diocese.) his favorite 
Scriptural motto, "We will give ourselves continually to 
prayer and the ministry of the word" together with his 
emphatic quotation from Jewel, U A Bishop shall die preach- 
." still governed his actions, and he went about as usual, 
doing the work of an evangelist, and strengthening the 
churches, insomuch that, in little or nothing, were his cus- 
tomary activities diminished. The secret monition within, 
it is true, made him walk thoughtfully; but to common 
observation without, he appeared to walk firmly. Hia 
figure w erect as ever ; his limbs were remarkably 



196 fclEMOIR OF 

vigorous, and his general health seemed to be even better 
than usual. He was, in fact, the laborious Bishop still, 
abounding in thoughts, prayers, and labors for the spiritual 
welfare of his charge. 

And in regard to the former, (the general welfare of the 
Church,) he felt, as he had for some time been feeling, even 
increasing solicitude. After what has already been written, 
it is almost needless to add here, that Bishop Griswold was 
too thoroughly a Protestant to look, without growing appre- 
hension, upon the theological tendencies of certain portions 
of our Church, both in England and in America. He had 
been too good a student of the Bible, and, it may be added, 
of antiquity to, too feel a moment's hesitation on the ques- 
tion what stand he ought to take in a controversy so preg- 
nant with influences on our future religious and ecclesiasti- 
cal destiny ? He descried our coming dangers in this con- 
troversy more clearly than the mass of his own clergy and 
people, or than the mass of our clergy and people in gene- 
ral. To some he even seemed, in the course which he took, 
if not a false prophet of evil days, at least needlessly alarmed 
at the approach of perils which probably looked much bigger 
in their shadows, as they fell forward on the imagination, 
than they would prove in their substance when they should 
come to be handled in experience. He was evidently some- 
what disappointed at the immediate result of a course of 
labors in which he had felt it his duty to engage, and which 
he did but close on what proved one of the last days of his 
life. For a long time he had been addressing, through the 
columns of The Christian Witness & Church Advocate, a 
series of Pastoral Letters to his clergy and people, on a 
variety of important topics. But at length the progress of 
the Oxford Tract movement induced him to confine him- 
self to one subject, that of the Protestant Reformation. 
On this, he was for many months engaged in writing that 
valuable series of essays which have since been collected 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 197 

and republished, in a large tract, by Mr. Dow, of Boston. 
By this series, without directly entering the lists with the 
Tract writers, he still hoped to awaken apprehension of the 
dangerous tendency of their writings, and to furnish the 

ins of counteracting that tendency, both in his own Dio- 

and in other parts. The immediate effect of his writings, 
as I have remarked, appeared to disappoint him. He saw 
the tendency in question, and the danger of that tendency, 
most plainly ; and so deeply did the sight affect his own 
mind, that he looked for stronger and quicker sympathy In 
his views from others, than he actually received. There were 
quarters, it is true, in which his writings were duly appre- 
ciated, and where they excited a deep interest. But, in 
general, what he wrote evidently met with the feeling to 
which I have adverted — an unwillingness to see and feel the 
reality of the peril against which he sought to warn the 
Church. He wrote, however, for a day which he lived not 
to see. Facts are already investing his tract on the Refor- 
mation with its true importance, and showing that, as he 
looked into the future, he looked, not with the eye of false 
alarm, but with the vision of a clear and deep foresight. 
This is a tract of uncommon value. From notes left in my 
session, it is manifest that, though the volume in its col- 
lected form is but small, it was yet the result of very 
varied, minute, and careful reading. Small though it be, it 
is nevertheless a rich storehouse of facts and of arguments 
on the vastly important subject of which it treats. It is not 
a history of the Reformation, but a summary of reasons for 
the Reformation, and such a summary as few minds but 
that of its author could have produced, whether we regard 
the appropriateness of its style, or the luminousness of its 

\ the fertile range of topics, or the wondrous power of 
condensation which it exhibits. 

This little book brings out an interesting feature in 

op Griswold's religious character and views, "While 



198 MEMOIR OF 

he loved the Church as truly Catholic, it may be said he 
loved her most for that great principle on which, under Pro- 
testant auspices, she based herself at the Reformation — the 
sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures as the sole rule of faith, 
and the only infallible guide in practice to every man that 
honestly and earnestly seeks for the salvation which is in 
Christ Jesus. 

He often urged the study of the Bible upon every man, 
as being full of the Spirit of God ; as evincing their own 
sufficiency, through the teachings of that Spirit, to guide the 
inquiring mind to the Saviour, and as demonstrating thus 
its Divine Author's intention, that it should be put, unsealed, 
into the hands of every one — his own rich free gift to the 
world. He held that these inspired Scriptures were God's 
storehouse of spiritual food for the life and health of the 
human family, and, like our ordinary food, to be kept 
accessible to every human soul. He rejected the dogma 
of an inspired oral tradition, coordinate in authority 
with the written word, necessary to the true interpretation 
of that word, £ind of right binding its interpretation on the 
conscience of every member of the Church. He did not, 
indeed, reject aids to the interpretation of the Bible, whether 
those aids were ancient and modern ; but he did refuse to 
consider any thing necessary as its infallible interpreter, 
save its own self-interpreting light, and the teachings of that 
Holy One by whom it was dictated. He taught that the 
Bible alone, of all things now accessible, " is given by inspir- 
ation of God ;*' that its curses lie on every one who adds to 
it, or takes from it ; and that when read by the honest mind 
with the prayer of a devout heart, it is in itself, and to the 
full of all hurr. an needs, "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the 
man of God,' be he preacher, or be he reader, "may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

Taking this view as fundamental to the true svstem of 



BISHOP ORIS WOLD. 199 

theology, as going before all right views of particular doc> 
trines, he held it at the opening of his ministry, and on 
through all his subsequent ministrations. And yet, towards 
the close of his labors, he gave it even a marked promi- 
nence. When he saw the Church of his affections, in this 
country, as well as in England, drawn into peril by the 
labors of a school who were avowedly seeking to un-pro- 
testantize her, by leading her back through the labyrinth of 
tradition, first, to sacramental justification, then to the mira- 
cle-working powers of a sacrificing priesthood, and finally 
to other prodigies of a night of superstition ; when he con- 
templated changes like these, the effect of whichj when 
reached, will be to put Christ once more into awful dis- 
tance, instead of keeping him near, the loved friend, the 
only, the unassociated Saviour of the lost, and at length to 
conceal him again, as to all practical purposes, behind a 
dense cloud of saints canonized by man, of shrines glittering 
with the offerings of wealth, or of shows awful amidst the 
display of pomp ; when he looked upon a system which, 
in its fuller developments, does little more than make the 
Church one of the kingdoms of this world, while it leaves 
the sinner to perish in his blindness, hugging a delusion, 
yet thinking it salvation ; when he saw the fruits of the 
Reformation put amidst the peril of a return even towards 
such a system as this, unsavory to his tastes as was the 
work of controversy, he hesitated not to step forth in the 
service of our Church, and as one of her chief ministers, to 
do what he could for her safety. Though when he begun 
the series of essays to which I have referred, he had many 
other things in hand, yet, ere he finished it, it became his 
last work ; and well did he achieve the task which it 
imposed. His tract on the Reformation, written in his 
own clear style, full of the light of the Bible, and evincing 
the yet undimmed powers of his mind, demonsl rates irre- 
futably the necessity and the glory of the great Reforma- 



200 MEMOIR OF 

tion, and shows incontestibly that our Church can never 
recede from the stand which at that period she assumed, 
without proving at once false to herself, and faithless to her 
Saviour. 

In these labors not a few watched his course with the 
deepest interest. And even now it is a stirring sight to look 
back and see the aged watchman, as he stood at his post, and 
descried the danger which was beginning to lower heavily 
over our Zion, and to observe how, with a firm and vigorous 
hand, he seized his heavenly armor, put it on like a true and 
thoroughly-furnished man of God, walked valiantly forth to 
the support of a periled cause, stood firmly and contended 
manfully by the side of her whom he loved, and finally 
finished his course, defending the Protestantism of the 
Church, and the Bible on which it is based, in an age when 
faith once more verges so strongly toward superstition, and 
taste runs again so eagerly after ceremony ! 

With this last labor of Bishop Griswold the Eastern Dio- 
cese ceased to be, leaving its name only and its history 
inseparably blended with those of the man with whose Epis- 
copate they began, continued, and ended. When his work 
was done, the niche of this Diocese in our ecclesiastical 
temple was filled. Its purpose being served, nothing remains 
but the fruits which it has borne, and the lessons which it 
has taught. As a mother of Dioceses, its name will be 
honored, and its monument be hung with ever-fresh memo- 
dais. And as a nurse of sound Episcopal principles and of 
true evangelical doctrines, its influence will be felt with a 
salutary power over wide regions of earth, and through long 
tracts of time. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 201 



CHAPTER IX. 

EXTRACTS. ETC.. FROM PRIVATE JOURNALS, AND FROM PRIVATE LETTERS, 
DURING- THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD. 

Having thus sketched the public life of Bishop Griswold, 

I feel that the work would be incomplete were I not now to 

go back, and, taking up the thread which has been dropped, 

How it to its end, as it runs through the more private 

life of this beloved man of God. 

In thus going back, however, I find that the thread which 
I have to resume divides itself into three strands. The first 
runs, in numerous circles, through his large Diocese, and 
shows us who it was that was journeying, and with what 
feelings he journeyed, for so many years, over mountain and 
valley, through floods and tempests, in health and sickness, 
in the vigor of firm manhood, and under the burthens of 
growing age. The second runs through his 'parish ministry^ 
far as that ministry falls within his Episcopal life, and 
shows us what he did is these more retired labors of his 
course, and what tokens he had from God that his labors 
not in vain. And the third runs through his family, 
and shows us how he daily walked with God, and through 
what 3, unlooked on of the world, God led him home 

to himself. 

The earliest recovered fragment of his journal, from 
which I am able to quote, dates in 1818, seven years after 
his consecration : 

9* 



202 MEMOIR OF 

" June 23d. Journeyed to Boston, with a view to many 
important duties. But, except the Lord build the house, we 
labor in vain." 

"August 25th. They who write an account of their own 
lives, may learn from the history their own worthlessness, 
and to how little purpose they live. How should it humble 
us ! ' Pride was not made for man.' A month has now 
passed away, and how few of its incidents are worth record- 
ing ! Thy mercies, O Lord ! are ever worthy of record. 
' They are new every morning ;' their number and their 
richness surpass ' the power of language, speech, and 
thought.' Preparing for a journey ; but how negligent and 
unprepared for a journey from which there is no return !" 

"August 80th. I am now on another tour through this 
Diocese. But how insufficient for the momentous duties- 
how unworthy the most solemn and interesting administra- 
tions to which 1 am called ! We can do all things, Christ 
helping us. May thy help, O blessed Lord ! be my hope 
and my comfort. May thy grace attend the means, and thy 
mercy forgive the unworthiness of him who is appointed to 
administer them !" 

This tour evidently lay through those parts of Rhode 
Island and Massachusetts which border on Connecticut ; and 
he diverged from it so far as to visit Simsbury ; for his next 
entry, three days later, is as follows : 

" September 2d. Visited the place of my nativity. Here 
were the scenes of my youthful vanities, of my early studies, 
and of my firs-j religious hopes. Here rest the bones of my 
ancestors. Here I meet with the surviving remnant of my 
youthful associates — a remnant, alas ! how small ! Where 

now are , and , and ? Where now is 1 

I have come to visit a sick mother. What reflections stir 
on the decay, the infirmities of a relation so near, so inter- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 203 

estirtg ! The few whom I meet of my former friends, how 
changed from what they were ! Oh ! how cheering the 
hope, that there is a world which will not decay ; thai this 
corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal be 
clothed with immortality !" 

" September 3d. This day I am to meet with a few of 
my once youthful acquaintance, to preach to them and to 
pray with them. What pensive thoughts, what pleasing 
melancholy fill my soul ! No power of language can 
express the reflections which agitate my mind. O Lord, 
is there not too much of the world in this % Is there not 
too little trust, too little hope in thee ? Forgetting the things 
that are behind, may I ^>ms forivard to the things that are 
before. What fruit have I in those things whereof I am now 
ashamed? For the end of too many of those things is 
death." 

" Monday,. 28th May, 1821. Went to Providence in the 
stage. The weather fine and the season promismg. How 
abundant are God's mercies, both temporal and spiritual ! 
Wherever the eye is turned, his goodness smiles. But how 
ungratefully do I partake of his goodness ! Amidst his 
mercies and the comforts of his salvation, why is the 
mind sometimes sad and the heart faint ? ' Why art thou 
so full of heaviness, O my soul ; why art thou so disquieted 
within me? Put thy trust in God.' Oh ! may I ever trust 
in thee, who art ever good and faithful. May I call to 
mind thy mercies of old, the years of thy right hand. I 
will yet give him thanks for the help of his countenance." 

Diverging from his westward route through Massachu- 
setts, he paid a visit to Hartford, Connecticut, passing over 
a mountainous region. On this part of his tour he has the 
following reflections : 

" Tuesday, 29th. Life is a journey. We are tessecj 



204 MEMOIR OF 

and shaken on its rugged road, and oft in perils. Some- 
times we pass along the smooth and level plain, with little 
change or variety, from month to month and from year to 
year. But, generally, life's journey is more like ours 
to-day. Frequently, through the Lord's indulgent good- 
ness, we ascend the hill of fortune. Some of his favorite 
children does prosperity raise to the mountain's summit, 
whence we view the beauties of nature, the kingdoms of the 
earth, and their glory. But the loftiest hill must have its 
descent. With greater precipitancy are we hurried down 
to the valley. How steep, and often how perilous the 
movement ! In many unhappy cases how dreadful has 
been the downfall ! 

" Riding in the stage leads to many reflections on our 
company, our fellow-passengers on the journey of life. 
How much its happiness depends on their character and 
their benevolence! Could we always choose our com- 
panions, and had we wisdom always to make the best 
choice, how different would be this dreary pilgrimage ! 
But God does all things right. Our duty is, to act well 
the part which he assigns us. If we can not receive good 
at all times, we can do it ; and if men do ill, w r e may give 
them better examples. Remember who has said, 'It is 
more blessed to give than to receive.' 

"Among the passengers was Mrs. , and her two 

daughters, deaf and dumb. In the course of the day, I 
have had many thoughts and reflections on those inlets of 
knowledge, of happiness, and of pain to the soul, the 
senses ; on the remarkable effects of losing one or more 
of them, and on the possibility and the consequence of still 
more being added ; also, on that spiritual deafness and its 
effects, which are the great obstacles to our ministry and so 
often render our preaching in vain. These persons deprived 
of hearing, seem very happy in the thought that, by two 
years of hard study, they may in some degree remedy the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 205 

dreadful effect occasioned by their deafness. How many 
thousands and millions, in the full enjoyment of all their 
senses, have passed this same day without one grateful 
thought on such a blessing ! How very much are our 
senses abused and made the instruments of sinning against 
the Author of all benefits !" 

" 31st. Seemed as a day lost. My mind was depressed 
with melancholy thoughts. Oh! how weak is our faith! 
How blessed to live in constant communion with God !" 

A paragraph from his journal at Bennington illustrates 
his keen, delicate sensibility to the refining and elevating 
power of high female character and influence : 

" Met here with Miss C , of Middlebury. She has 

been residing in New- York, where the Lord has blessed to 
her conversion the preaching of that faithful minister of 
Christ, Dr. Mi] nor. She is a sensible young woman, pos- 
sessed of beauty and of all that is amiable in nature and 
by education ; truly pious ; her whole soul devoted to her 
Saviour. She reminds me of the celestial inhabitants ; she 
seems but i a little lower than the angels.' What mortal 
state can imagination portray so nearly resembling that of 
those pure intelligences as the character and life of a pious 
young female ?" 

On the 6th of June, after having preached to a congre- 
gation "part of whom had come ten or fifteen miles to 
hear the word and to enjoy the comfort of Christian fellow- 
ship and of the Saviour's ordinances," he thus humbly and 
self-searchingly writes : 

u Oh! may they not have come in vain! Blessed are 
they who have ears to hear. Am I, O Lord God, faithful 
to teach thy truth? Did I keep back nothing that was 



206 MEMOIR OF 

profitable ? Have I not been careless and languid when 
the salvation of hundreds may have depended on their 
receiving the words I spake? Have I not regarded this 
world when I should have been about my Master's busi- 
ness] Have I not, in executing the duties of my office, 
had respect to my own glory? Have I never aimed to 
please the fancies of men 

"'When sent with GTocTs commission to their hearts?' 

If it was necessary that St. Paul should have ' a thorn in 
the flesh,' how wise and good is God in removing from me 
temptation to boasting and vanity ! Had he bestowed on 
me great and excellent gifts ; did I possess eloquence and 
other eminent talents ; if I had made great attainments in 
knowledge, and stood high in the ranks of literary fame, 
how perilous must have been my state, inclined, as by 
nature I so much am, to think more highly of myself than 
I ought to think !" 

The last part of this extract brings to mind an incident 
which I lately learned from one of the Bishop's former 
Massachusetts clergy. 

Having labored fatiguingly all day, during a visit to the 
parish in Dedham, he was urged to ride several miles on a 
cold, uncomfortable Sunday evening, for the purpose of 
holding a third service at Quincy. Being seated in the 
chaise, he remarked to his reverend companion, " Brother 

C , this is rather hard, to ride so far at my time of life, 

on such an evening as this and after a day's labor so fatigu- 
ing, for the purpose of preaching to a small congregation, 
and without any special ability to interest them. How- 
ever," he added, " it is a good way to mortify pride, and 
to keep the body in subjection. This is my way of attain- 
ing these important ends, and I think it a better way for 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 207 

me than wearing a hair-shirt or enduring extraordinary 
fasts. I have, by this means, learned to throw away regret 
at my want of talents as a popular preacher. It has led me 
to reflect much on the case of those who become the idols 
of popular applause. And from this study and accompany- 
ing observation on men I have learned enough of the philo- 
sophy of our nature to be even thankful that God never saw 
fit to make me what is usually called a popular preacher. I 
have noticed that the peculiar excitability of temperament 
which seems necessary in acquiring that kind of reputation, 
with the flatteries and caresses which follow it, has often led 
to deep and awful falls from Christian character." 

But to proceed with the journal : 

" June 7th. Performed service and preached at Man- 
chester. The court, which was in session, from politeness, 
or, we may hope, a still better motive, adjourned to attend 
the service. May we all be duly reminded of that Court, 
infinitely higher and more just, before which we must all 
soon stand. How desperate, how hopeless would be our 
case were it not, O blessed Lord Jesus ! that thou wilt be 
our ''Advocate with the Father ;' that thy righteousness we 
may plead, and in thy merits he justified. 'Thanks be to 
God for his unspeakable gift.' " 

[In this extract, and a number of those which are to fol- 
low, will be seen the habitual tendency of the Bishop's 
mind to turn every event into food for spiritual reflection, 
and his peculiar faculty of illustrating religious truth by 
strong comparisons derived from daily life.] 

"June 13th. This morning, at the time we intended to 
set off, there was a shower of rain, with much lightning and 
thunder. Prospects for the journey very discouraging. 



208 MEMOIR OF 

But what should discourage those whose trust is in that 
God who will make all things work together for their 
good? I found on this, as on a thousand occasions, that 
the Lord will not forsake us. The storm soon subsided, a 
bright morning followed, and riding was the more pleasant 
for the rain. 

"After this clouded, stormy night of life is past, how 
bright, how joyful will be the resurrection morn ! The 
bright scenes of this morning — the joyful countenance of 
the busy world, the cheerful notes of the feathered choir, 
the smiling face of nature, clothed in verdure and rejoicing 
in the more than common vigor of youthful summer — all 
these give but a faint idea of that glorious day of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, when saints and angels shall unite in a uni- 
versal chorus, when the Sun of Kighteousness shall shine 
in immortal glory, and the universe shall resound with the 
Redeemer's praise.*' 

They passed the western" range, or spur, of the Green 
Mountains at Waterbury, where the Onion River finds its 
way from Montpelier toward Lake Champlain. At " Water- 
bury," the Bishop writes / " stop to view the natural bridge, 
a curiosity worth a journey of many miles. The river here 
has forced its passage through the mountain. The remain- 
ing rocks, in frightful precipices, project on either side. 
Immense masses of solid stone, loosened by time and the 
continual action of the water, have fallen down and filled 
the channel ; and the river, in finding its passage under 
them, is, in one place, wholly lost to the eye ; and where it 
issues below, its whole volume of waters is compressed into 
the narrow breadth of a very few feet. The beholder js 
astonished, and can scarce believe this no small stream is 
contained within such scanty limits. Above these falls the 
river is remarkably tranquil, flowing along with an easy and 
almost imperceptible motion. Riding upon its banks, and 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 209 

reflecting how soon these waters are to be dashed over the 
precipice and agitated with the utmost commotion, I am 
reminded of the deceptions and the vicissitudes of human 
life. In prosperous days, when life flows pleasantly along 
the current of time, we know not, and we are little inclined 
to the consideration, how soon and how suddenly the scene 
may be changed ! What disappointments, what sorrows, 
what distresses a day or an hour may bring forth ! To our 
moral and religious state, the application is serious as it is 
just. Myriads of souls are lulled into a fatal security by 
the smiles of fortune, worldly joys, and present ease. To 
such, death is indeed a dreadful cataract — the fall is sudden 
from temporal hope to utter despair. How ought the 
preacher to be faithful, whether men will hear or whether 
they will forbear ! How should we take heed not to ; cry 
peace where there is no peace !' And hath not God himself 
said, c There is no peace to the wicked V 

" The scenery on Onion River from Burlington to Mont- 
pelier is exceedingly interesting. The eye is never weary 
of seeing. It is continually entertained with a pleasing 
variety of rich meadows and delightful intervale ; now ex- 
panding into a broad surface, and now contracted into nar- 
row limits, as though the very hills were eager to view the 
romantic scenery, and delighted with witnessing the strug- 
gles of the waters to force their way through all obstructions. 
These hills are seen swelling into infinite variety of size and 
shape, so that every new turn of the way presents some 
new combination of forms and colors, reminding one of the 
wondrous changes of the kaleidoscope. Some of the scenery 
is inexpressibly bold and sublime. In short, while moving 
along this extended pass the observant traveller feelfl as 
though he were moving through Nature's cabinet — one long 
gallery of the rich, the beautiful, and the grand of her un- 
matched forms."" 



210 



MEMOIR OF 



Upon leaving Claremont, N. H., he has the following note 
in his journal : 

" June 25th. Parting reluctantly with friends more kind 
than T deserve, we hurry on to Drewsville. * * * 
Arrive in season for the services, and find friends more 
obliging, were that possible, than those we leave behind. 
What am I, O Lord God, that these honors should be 
shown to me, whilst others, infinitely more worthy, pass 
through life neglected 1 Remember, my soul, that thou 
in thy life-time art receiving good things, and they evil things. 
May not these good things be my only portion ? Blessed 
Lord Jesus, let me rather be as Lazarus or as Job than 
receive my portion in this world !" 

" October 2d, 1821. Through the Lord's goodness, com- 
menced another journey. Almost 1800 years have passed 
away since the Apostles of Jesus Christ were first sent forth 
on this gracious message of mercy and salvation. Blessed 
indeed would it be if I had their spirit and their zeal. It 
is comforting that we have the same Lord, who changes not, 
and the same promises, w r hich can not fail. 

" O blessed Gocl and Saviour, grant that, like them, 1 may 
be faithful, and that like theirs may be my success in labor- 
ing to build up thy kingdom and extending the knowledge of 
thy salvation to my fellow-sinners. If Moses shrunk from 
the tremendous duty of declaring thy message to a rebel- 
lious people, what am I, that ? But thy power is 

sometimes manifested in human weakness. Oh ! may thy 
Divine Spirit be my companion, awaken my zeal, give me 
wisdom from above, and preserve me from perils both of 
soul and body. Oh ! visit not upon this people the sins and 
unworthiness of their pastor ; but for thy goodness sake, 
and according to thy manifold and great mercies, stretch 
forth thy right hand to save. Amen." 



BISHOP GEISWOLD. "211 

In passing through Bradford. Mass.. he encountered a 
military parade, his reflections on which are worthy of 
serration : 

•* October 5th. Found in Bradford an immense multitude, 

• yc bug men and maidens, old men and children,' collected 

itness the training of two regiments of militia. Prom 

• whence come wars and lightings V An Apostle has given 
the correct answer. The propensity of mankind to he 

ghted with military parade, and to honor those who 
shine in arms, is an evidence that they want a * peace which 
the world can not give. ? ; Not as the world giveth* peace. 
(says the Prince of Peace.) • give I unto you/ Oh ! may this 

e he more and more extended till all shall strive, not to 
destroy men's lives, hut to save them. How happy would 
it be were men as interested, as engaged in c righting the 
good right of faith ;.' and if. instead of these carnal weapons, 
they would * put on the whole armor of God V According 
to the wisdom of the world, to teach men to tight, to train 
them to arm?, to inspire them with a martial spirit, to in- 
flame their souls with the love of military fame, is the surest 
way to keep them in peace ! The wisdom which is from 
above teaches us that to preach the Gospel of the Redeemer's 
king to subdue those * lusts which war in our mem- 

ad to inculcate heavenly love, will be more effectual. 
On this message, O blessed Jesus, we, thine unworthy minis- 
:g, with some difficulty and without notice, 

►ugh this crowd. II w infinitely greater shall be the 

nUv, how changed the views and feelings of all. when 

the archangel's trump shall summon the numerous tribes of 

mi's race to attend thy dread tribunal !" 

•• ( ' 11th. This day. at Amherst, was found 

guilty of a mosl I and barbarous murther, and - 

tene. uh. May the Lord have mercy on his 

soul ! Didst thou, Leemer, shed thy bl 



212 MEMOIR OF 

unworthy, such sinful creatures'? Hast thou, indeed, such 
mercy for those who have none for each other % How awful 
the thought that this atrocious wretch is soon to be sent from 
an earthly tribunal to the supreme court of the universe ! 
Yet who knows but the terrors of his situation may bring 
him to himself, and cause him to flee from the wrath to 
come ? Oh ! may he know and seasonably avail himself of 
that prevailing 'Advocate with the Father,' who can plead as 
never man pleaded, and who is sure to procure the acquittal 
and justification of those who duly commit their cause to his 
management. This suit may be defended ' without money 
and without price.' No fees are required but the tears 
which flow from a penitent heart. No plea can prevail but 
that of guilty. No argument for mercy is needed but that 
of faith in Christ, and no evidence on our part is called for 
but the following of his counsel, and living to him in holi- 
ness." 

On the 23d he left Troy, on his way toward the General 
Convention. On his way he examined the United States 
Arsenal between Troy and Albany, " a curiosity," he writes, 
" worth visiting. Yet it is melancholy," he adds, " to reflect 
what labor and expense are bestowed in preparing instru- 
ments to destroy men's lives. The common maxim, that 
preparing for war preserves peace, is at least doubtful, if 
not certainly false. To preserve peace it is most necessary 
to subdue ' the lusts which war in our members.' Provid- 
ing the means of warfare will increase the desire to use them. 
Is life more safe for putting swords in the hands of mad- 
men 1 Which policy, in the event, best preserved peace 
with the natives of this country, that of the Puritans in New. 
England or that of the Quakers in Pennsylvania ? Had we 
an arsenal, in which might be deposited in an unused, inac- 
tive state, all our pride, selfishness, and ambition, peace 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 213 

would indeed be lasting. But what buildings are sufficiently 
capacious to contain such a deposit ?" 

The following extract shows him at one of the annual 
commencements in Brown University, while acting as Chan- 
cellor of that Institution. 

" September 3d, 1822. Went to Providence. After some 
difficulty, commenced the examination of the candidates for 

orders, A , J , and C . Had many serious and 

some painful thoughts and reflections on the inconsideration 
or thoughtlessness with which too generally men take upon 
themselves the solemn vows, and the awfully responsible 
office of the Christian ministry. How dreadful is the judg- 
ment denounced upon unfaithfulness ! How tremendous the 
thought, that the salvation, the eternal well-being of many 
immortal souls may depend, God only knows in what de- 
gree, on our diligence and fidelity ; and that some may for 
ever perish through our neglect !" 

" September 4th. Attend the business and exercises of the 
commencement. Fatiguing to body and mind. How much 
do we add to the burthen of life in order to support useless 
parade and a vain show ! Such however is the imperfection 
of our nature, the corruption of our hearts, and the limitation 
of our faculties, that much of our formality is a necessary 
evil. Thousands crowd together with much eagerness to 
behold the exercises, which to the few graduates are indeed 
interesting. And yet how very unconcerned are the most 
of this immense assembly about that commencement, that be- 
ginning of a never-ending state which is sure soon to come, 
and in which all are equally and infinitely concerned ! Here 
we are pursuing, or ought to be pursuing the course of our 
preparatory exercises. How alarming is the thought that 
for idleness and misconduct we may be expelled ! These 
3 oung men think it of vast importance that their appearance 
for a few minutes on this stage and before this brilliant as- 



214 MEMOIR OF 

sembly should be favorable ; and for four years they will 
labor, in severe and patient study, to obtain one of the first 
parts. Can the same individuals, then, with myriads of 
others, be unconcerned how they shall appear before unnum- 
bered hosts of men and angels ; before the most splendid 
concourse of the assembled world ? Have they no anxiety 
what part shall be allotted them for eternity V 

In November of this year, 1822, he commenced another 
tour round his Diocese, He left home on the 11th, and 
seems to have spent a week in business and journeying 
before he reached the first place at which he had made ar 
appointment. Hence the following entry in his Journal : 

"Never before journeyed so long in the Diocese without 
performing any public services. Blessed Lord, has this 
week, now so soon to be numbered ' with the years before 
the flood,' been spent according to thy will 1 Might I not 
have done some good, which I have neglected ? In the week 
now soon to commence, I am (by appointment) to be en- 
gaged in many arduous and important duties. At the end 
of it, should I see its end, I may be less satisfied than I am 
with the one now closing. It is better to do nothing than it 
is to do ill. O thou Father of lights, thou God of grace ! 
did ever creature of thine so need thy aid ? Do thou, 
who heardst the prayer of Solomon, l give me wisdom and 
knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this great 
people.' Let thy strength be manifest in my weak]' 
And as 'thine is the kingdom and the power,' so thine shall 
be ' the glory for ever, Amen.' " 

" In each of these tours, I look in vain for many whom 
I had before seen. Six weeks since. I left home. Then the 
forests retained their verdure ; and nature smiled in rip< 
beauties. Now, the leaves are falling, the forests are 



BISHOP GIUSWOLD. 215 

fast fading, and the lofty trees are laying their honors in 
the dust. Such emphatically are my contemporaries. 'We 
do fade as a leaf.' 'All flesh is grass, and the glory thereof 
as the flower of the field.' Three days since, the autumnal 
livery of the groves was inexpressibly beautiful. Just now, 
a severe frost has suddenly and mournfully changed their 
hue. So man in the autumn of life often shines in the most 
splendid glories ; often, too, they fall and fade as suddenly 
as the leaves. Why is he thus fond of ' walking in a vain 
show V " 

Still journeying south amidst his labors, he entered Mas- 
sachusetts, and reached Lanesborough, the residence of his 
sister Deborah. Since Ins last visit to this place, his aged 
mother had died ; she to whose tuition and discipline his 
early mind had been so much indebted. On the 16th of 
October, he penned the following brief but touching para- 
graph : 

u Visited my mother's grave. Merciful God ! What 
thoughts it suggests, what recollections it calls to mind ! 
What pen can describe, what tongue can utter, the pensive 
sadness of my soul ? Yet why sad ? Why not, O Lord, 
rejoice in all thy works ? Why not perfectly confide in the 
wisdom and goodness of all thy providences ? What more 
can faith desire than that thy will shall be done i Dreadful 
indeed was the sentence, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return V But how animating the promise of Him who 
is • the resurrection and the life ;' ' The dead shall hear the 
voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live !' " 

At the close of a journey through Canada in 1820, under- 
taken soon after his severest domestic afflictions, his beret 
and stricken heart gains this brief record: 



216 MEMOIR OF 

"My thoughts during this last day's ride were much 
agitated, and my spirits much depressed, by reflection on 
the changes in my family, and among my friends. Just art 
thou, O God, who hast called me to sorrow and mourning ; 
and righteous art thou in all thy dealings. Shall we receive 
good at thy hand, and shall we not receive evil ? ' Lover 
and friends hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaint- 
ances out of my sight.' Thou hast indeed stricken me ; but 
have I grieved? Have I not despised thy chastening, by 
neglecting duly to humble my soul in penitence and sorrow? 
Oh ! forbid that thy corrections should be in vain. ' Make 
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within 
me. Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not 
thy Holy Spirit from me. Oh ! give me the comfort of thy 
help again, and stablish me with thy free Spirit. Then shall 
I teach thy ways unto the wicked : and sinners shall be con- 
verted unto thee.' " 

The almost numberless journeys which Bishop Griswold 
made round his Diocese, were accompanied with frequent 
exhausting toils, and exposures not only of health, but also 
of life. Yet he always travelled without accident, and 
seemed sometimes to wear out disease by the counter-irri- 
tant of motion and toil. These attacks of disease in travel- 
ling, however, continued to increase in frequency and viru- 
lence, often awakening the fear that he would not survive to 
reach his home, and causing him to discharge his duties in 
an abiding sense of his uncertain hold on life, and the near 
ness of eternity. 

When Bishop Griswold first accejrted the Episcopate of 
the Eastern Diocese, he wrote thus to the President of its 
electing Convention : " Trusting in God, and in their " (the 
members of the Convention's) M candid indulgence and 
friendly counsels, I shall devote my future hours to the good 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 217 

and benefit of those Churches whom the Lord shall please 
to put under my care ; humbly endeavoring by zeal and 
diligence to supply what in other talents is deficient." "We 
have now to look at the public labors, and at the private 
exercises, with which he filled his whole Episcopal life ; and 
are therefore ready to answer the question, Did he not 
sacredly keep the vow and promise, with which he entered 
on his work ? Did he not honestly and literally sacrifice that 
young and high ambition of mere literary fame with which 
he once burned, and bring the whole of those secret ener- 
gies, which before were shooting up so tall on the outside of 
the vineyard, into exclusive and whollv engrossed action 
within the sacred inclosure, that they might there rise high 
indeed, though with a holier tendency, and bear fruit an 
hundred fold to the glory of God 1 Did he carry a divided 
heart through his many labors'? Was he not wholly 
Christ's, in his studies and in his toils, in his secret thoughts 
and in his constant prayers, in his sufferings of body and in 
his sorrows of heart ? To such questioning we can find but 
one answer. If there were ever a resolution kept to the 
full, from the moment when it was first taken, till death set- 
tled the date to which it ran, it was that which he so early 
recorded, and which we so late have quoted. To his one 
work he consecrated not merely the general course of his 
life, but almost literally his " hours." We can scarcely 
find even an hour when he was not engaged either in de- 
vising or in doing something which had a more or less ex- 
clusive reference to the glory of God in the good of his 
Church. 



10 



218 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER X. 

PAROCHIAL LIFE OF BISHOP GRISWOLD, AFTER THE TEAR 1812. 



We withdraw now from the Diocese and the Einscopal life 
of the beloved subject of these memoirs. The thread of 
incidents and traits of character which we here take up and 
prepare to follow will conduct us only round the parish in 
which, after his consecration, he still continued to labor. 

What followed in his parish in 1812, about one year after 
his consecration, we have already seen in the simple account 
which he himself has left of that remarkable season of revived 
attention to the subject of religion during the summer of that 
favored year. From that period he continued his pastoral 
labors with unabated and even increased diligence, subject, 
of course, to the necessary interruptions brought in by his 
Episcopal visitations. During those visitations his place 
was often, if not always, supplied by the theological stu- 
dents who were residing with or near him, and who were 
admitted to officiate, as lay-readers, in his desk. The com- 
munications which I have received, and which cover this part 
of his life and labors, are from those who have lived in his 
family or been connected with it by most intimate ties. The 
views, therefore, which these communications present are 
from the testimony of eye and ear-witnesses, and take us as 
nearly as possible to the subject of this portion of the 
memoir. And we see in them, not the distant and unap- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 210 

proachable prelate, but the humble, toilful, and simple parish 
minister, moving among his flock from house to house ; over- 
looking nothing in the minutest individual concerns, whether 
among the lowly or among those in higher estate — whether 
in the chamber of sickness or in the walks of the broken- 
hearted penitent ; and aspiring to nothing but the success of 
his labors, and an answer to his prayers, in saving the souls 
of those committed to his care, whether they were the pos- 
sessors of wealth or the children of poverty — whether they 
lived in the enjoyment of educated leisure or spent their 
days in honored toil. 

His elevation to the Episcopate wrought no change from 
the previous charming simplicity of his life and teachings, 
other than that of increasing his opportunities for doing good, 
and of making more public his elevated views of Christian 
duty. No appearance of even a desire of " lording it over 
God's heritage/ 5 where he exerted the most unquestioned 
sway, was ever observable in his conduct. His former sys- 
tematic arrangement of time, his customary habits of self- 
denial, and his usual laborious endeavors to win souls to 
Christ, were daily carried with him after he was called to 
his highest ministry in the Church of God. 

The tendency and power of his ministry in leading the 
mind to clear and discriminating views of Christian truth and 
duty may be illustrated by the case of an intelligent lady 
who, more than thirty years since, was providentially brought 
under his influence, upon the removal of her family to Bris- 
tol. Being then but a child, her first feeling.- on seeing the 
holy man, as she followed the multitude on Sunday evenings 
to the Episcopal Church, were those of strong but undefined 
and childish admiration. Exceedingly thoughtless in her 
youth, it was through her fondness for variety and novelty 
that the services of the Church first attracted her attention. 
This, however, brought her, as it did Roger Viete, within 
influences, and she was at once rhanm 'I with the appro- 



220 MEMOIR OF 

priateness and simplicity of our services, but especially with 
the devout manner in which they were performed. This, 
nevertheless, was but preparatory work. It was the very 
interesting and enlightening sermons to which she listened 
that now riveted her attention and gave a new impulse to 
her thoughts. She no longer felt, as formerly, impatient for 
the close of the sermon, but was sweetly constrained to ac- 
knowledge that what she heard was the truth, and that she 
was personally interested in its solemn import. 

As her attendance at Church became more frequent, the 
winning and impressive appeals of the preacher were made 
the means, through the blessing of the Spirit, of awakening 
her feelings to a deep and settled concern for her eternal 
interests ; and though, for a long time, she still continued to 
mingle with the gay and thoughtless, she yet found it impos- 
sible to divest herself of the conviction that she must come 
out from among them and be separate. 

At length, the period of her indecision and of her struggle 
against convictions of truth and duty was brought to an end, 
and she became personally acquainted with Bishop Griswold. 
Then it was that the full blessing of his influence was felt. 
The conceptions of childish admiration, instead of being 
erased from her mind, were confirmed, and the ardor of her 
religious feelings, instead of being chilled, was fanned into a 
flame — so charitable did she find him in his construction of 
her imperfect apprehensions of divine truth, so willing to 
impart instruction, and so skilled in leading the inquiring 
mind to the Saviour. She found in him nothing austere, 
nothing dictatorial ; but a most accessible teacher, who dis- 
charged his heavenly commission by simply and meekly 
directing the sinner to the only ground of hope, the " rock 
Christ Jesus ;" while the singular devotedness of his whole 
being to his sacred calling, and his constant aim to recom- 
mend the religion which he taught by a corresponding prac- 
tice, fixed her esteem for his character, and served as a sort 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 221 

of nearer and inviting light in guiding her along the path of 
a divine life. And what she found in him at first, she found 
in him to the last. Though her intimate acquaintance with 
him and his family commenced soon after his consecration, 
yet all she saw till the scene of his life closed served but to 
confirm, instead of weaken, those impressions of his eminent 
holiness which were engraven so indelibly on her young 
mind. 

What was here exhibited in a particular case is but a 
sample of what was exhibited in all cases of a similar cha- 
racter, under the Bishop's parish ministry. His influence 
with individuals, as with society at large, was ever a grow- 
ing influence. It was never lost on long and close acquaint- 
ance. His preaching, indeed, was light rather than thunder, 
yet it showed itself to be the true Gospel by quietly and 
surely imparting true views of sin and of the Saviour, and 
by leading straight forward to high views of Christian sepa- 
rateness, and to a high standard of Christian duty. 

Of his more familiar labors during the week — his ministry 
" out of season" — an equally definite and favorable view has 
been furnished. During the year 1819, one of the sons of 
his friend, Judge Tyng, went to reside in Bristol as a student 
of theology under Bishop Griswold. Young Tyng subse- 
quently became the Bishop's son-in-law, by marriage with 
his daughter, Ann De Wolf Griswold ; and from him, as the 
present eminent Rector of the Church of the Epiphany in 
Philadelphia, have been received contributions of great value 
to this part of the memoir. His opportunities for observa- 
tion and correct judgment were, of course, of the best kind. 
" The veneration and affection which I had cordially enter- 
tained for him," says Dr. Tyng, "upon going to reside m 
Bristol were matured and confirmed. He indulged me in a 
more intimate acquaintance than I had dared to hope. Our 
subsequent family connection brought us still more closely 
together; and until his death he was to me uniformly a con- 



222 MEMOIR OF 

tiding and affectionate father, and allowed me to be on the 

most free and filial terms with him." 

The account which Dr. Tyng gives of the Bishop's familiar 
and social labors among his people is interesting, and I can 
not do better than embody the substance of it in this part 
of the memoir. 

" When I had been in Bristol about a week," says Dr. T.. 
"the Bishop observed to me one day, 'I wish you to attend 
a meeting with me in the country this evening, and I will call 
for you after tea.' He came accordin^lv. and we walked 
about a mile to a neighborhood called ' The Neck, 5 where the 
rooms of a farm-house were entirely filled with people wait- 
ing his arrival. He sat down among them at a little table, 
and, after singing and prayer, expounded to them a chapter 
in the Epistle to the Romans, in that familiar and simple 
manner in which he so much excelled, and in winch all who 
listened to him were deeply interested. I can not describe 
the impressions which this whole occasion made upon me. 
The condescension and meekness with which he thus fami- 
liarly walked out with a youth like me ; the perfectly unas- 
suming manner in which he appeared among the rustic 
congregation assembled to meet him ; the simplicity and 
tenderness of his discourse ; the tremulous sweetness of his 
voice, as he raised the tune in singing, were all such new and 
striking facts to me that I was surprised as well as delighted 
with the whole occasion. It immediately obviated all the 
objections which I could have imagined against meetings of 
this kind, while it interested my heart in them as an import. 
ant means of spiritual good. The Bishop opened this service 
with a selection of prayers from the Liturgy, and dosed it 
with an extemporaneous prayer, in which duty lie excelled 
almost all whom I have ever heard. This. I believe, was the 
first private meeting which I attended with him. Subse- 
quently. I became so much accustomed to meetings of this 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 223 

kind that I had a full opportunity for perceiving all the 
blessings and advantages which flowed from them to the 
people, and my subsequent long experience has led to an 
entire confirmation of opinion and judgment on tins subject 
in coincidence with those of Bishop Griswokl. 

"The circumstances of this first meeting which I attended 
with him interested me so deeply that I have seldom or 
never passed the house since without having 'the scene 
brought vividlv again before my mind. His weeklv meet- 
ings were generally of this social and private character, and 
were uniformly conducted in the same manner with that 
which I have described. There were sometimes two or 
more such meetings in the week, and there were seasons when 
they were increased to a still greater number. When he 
at home he attended them himself, though even then he 
required of his theological students frequent addresses and 
exhortations to the people assembled, so that thus his minis- 
try was not only a continual example, and source of instruc- 
tion, but also, in the opportunity tor practical exercise in the 
duties of their future ministry which he gave them, of the 
greatest service in perfecting their qualifications, and in form- 
ing their habits tor future usefulness. During his absence 
on his Episcopal visitations, these opportunities were multi- 
plied : for then his candidates for orders had not only his 
place in these private meetings, but also his place in | 
chial duties, and especially in the public services of Sunday, 
to supply in their capacity as lay-readers ; and, as he was 
alwa; - al - i - era! months in the year, they were thus 
• in the virtual work of the ministry fur no small portion 
of the time while pursuing their theological studio-. 

•• 1 have ii' r seen the Bishop in a more affecting relation 
than in this private ministry among his own people, meeting 
with their gathered assemblies and visiting them from house 
to house. Here he shone preeminently as a man of i 
rich religious experience, holiness, ai d I >ve. On - 



22-i MEMOIR OF 

of his pastoral visits, especially among the poor and the su£ 
fering of his flock, he would take one of us with him. Some 
of the scenes thus exhibited I still recall with deep satisfac- 
tion. I have walked with him through the lanes and back 
streets of the town, and among the cottages and chambers 
of the poor; I have listened there to his affectionate and 
familiar religious counsel and conversation, and to his deeply- 
fervent and affecting prayers ; I have witnessed the humility 
of his own character, and the affection of his people for their 
faithful pastor, as these traits exhibited themselves under 
aspects of peculiar interest and power ; and his whole system 
• >f ministry has thus inspired me with increasing reverence, 
md more affectionate confidence, every day that I spent with 
him. The advantages which we who were students received 
as candidates for the ministry may be readily understood. 
To me they were made the guide and standard of all the 
succeeding labors of my life." 

His manner of spending every Lord's day in his parish 

was a beautiful illustration of these remarks. It is in 

ubstance the testimony of one who lived long under his 

ninistry, that on this day the deep spirituality of his mind 

hone forth most conspicuous. Scrupulously avoiding 

■very thing that related to worldly affairs, he passed the 

intermediate hours of public worship chiefly in his study. 

Vpparently absorbed in divine communings, he yet never 

:orgot the moment for public service, was ever first to lead 

he way to the sanctuary, and, while he remained within 

he courts of the Lord, both before and after service, would 

dmost literally obey the divine injunction, "Keep silence 

before him." Distinctly is it remembered by his near 

friends with what solemnity he was accustomed to speak 

on this subject, c; deeply regretting that even professors of 

religion would sometimes indulge in frivolous conversation 

immecTiatolv aftor iosriirig in tin i services of the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 225 

Church, and earnestly wishing that not even a word might 
be spoken until every one had left the sanctuary.*' His 
whole manner of spending Sunday was a living illustration 
of his exalted piety, and must have been a result of his 
clear perceptions of what constitutes a life of holiness. Nor 
was this illustration a weekly excrescence on the body of 
his piety. " It is refreshing,'" says an intimate friend, '* to 
look back and see him moving along the straight line of 
duty, sustaining his high standard of practical religion by a 
consistent walk during the week, and showing in his own 
daily life and conversation the literal practicability of those 
precepts which he enjoyed on the Sabbath." 

With various success in his ministry, his parish moved 
forward till the opening of the year 1S20, eighteen months 
from the date of the above extracts, when a somewhat 
alarming declension from religious life was found spreading 
through his flock. The weekly evening-meetings were 
thinly attended, and aged Christians were mourning over 
the manifest decay, and longing for the return of days when 
the Divine Spirit, in rich demonstrations of his power, had 
been known to rest on the ministration of the word and 
ordinances of God's house. 

It was in this state of things, when the Bishop had been 
several weeks at home, after the close of his previous 
year's journeyings, that he commenced a series of Wednes- 
dav-evening lectures in the church. The meeting for social 
prayer and religious instruction, as already described, was 
then held every Thursday evening, and in a small school- 
room near the church. At this meeting the attendance was 
now so much reduced, that on one occasion but thirteen 
persons were present. This, to .the few who came, revealed 
the depth of the affliction which had fallen on their parish, 
and filled the spirit of the Bishop especially with lively 
grief. So keenly did anxiety for his people pieroe and 
wound his heart, that it evidently became, if not the sole, 

10* 



2'2G MEMOIR OF 

yet the aggravating cause of the calamity which speedily 
befell him. On the succeeding "Wednesday evening, his 
congregation assembled for a continuance of his new series 
of lectures. He went through the services as usual ; but 
in the midst of his discourse he was suddenly seized with 
an illness which compelled him to stop, leave his pulpit, 
and retire to his chamber, where for weeks his life hung in 
imminent peril. This was the sickness to which he refers 
in one of his letters to the Rev. Mr. Pratt, of the Church 
Missionary Society in England, and from which he was 
then so slowly recovering. 

The public services were of course closed the moment he 
left his pulpit ; but the congregation were deeply affected by 
the event which had interrupted them. It proved the most 
powerful sermon that God ever sent them by Ms servant. 
The affliction which they felt, and their consciousness that 
their own lukewarmness was aggravating the sufferings of 
their beloved pastor, were made the means of an immediate 
and extensive spiritual awakening. In various parts of the 
Church, religious anxiety and alarm were instantly manifest. 
Little knots of people were seen gathered, here and there, 
round those who were before becoming interested in the 
subject of religion, and who were now awakened to mourn 
for sin. The voice of social prayer was heard among them, 
especially that of aged Christians, who, after suitable con- 
versation with them, were earnestly commending their case 
to God. It was a late hour before the people were content 
to retire ; and when they did so, it was with a very differ- 
ent mind from that in which they had assembled. Subse- 
quent evidence showed that the awakening in the parish 
was universal, even among those who did not attend the 
lecture that evening. 

The care of the parish now devolved on the two candi- 
dates for orders who were studying with the Bishop, and 
of whom Mr. Tyng was one. By him the facts of this 
narrative have been kindly communicated. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 2% i 

The very next day brought calls from every quarter for 
religious instruction and aid. The Bishop also sent forth 
his young assistants (especially Mr. Tyng, as having at 
that period more leisure from his studies) to seek through 
the conorreo;ation for those members of the flock who were 
anxious to hear their shepherd's voice. Everywhere evi- 
dence of an awakening influence presented itself. The 
ensuing evening, being that of the customary weekly meet- 
ing for prayer and religious instruction, brought out so 
large a congregation that, although they adjourned from the 
little school-room to a large private dwelling-house, there 
yet was not space enough to receive them. The rooms, 
entries, and stair-cases were crowded, and the area around 
the doors and windows was equally filled. The deepest 
solemnity reigned. Not a heart seemed untouched, 
unmoved. Tears flowed from the eyes of many present, 
and though the instrumentality of labor had fallen into 
youthful hands, yet was the Lord pleased to make the 
power of his Spirit manifest and effectual. 

From this time, for many weeks, the subject of religion, 
the salvation of their souls, engrossed the thoughts of all. 
There was now no anxious and care-worn minister urging 
a lukewarm and reluctant people to duty, but an awakened 
and anxious people calling eagerly for more labor than 
could be performed. For several weeks there were two 
and sometimes three meetings every day, and all crowded 
with intensely interested congregations. 

This change in the condition of his parish greatly cheered 
and comforted the sick pastor. He was not only confine J 
to his room, but utterly unable to receive even the visits of 
his parishioners for conversation. He could onl\ allow his 
young assistants occasionally to come in and give him an 
account of the surprising movement around him. as one 
after another of those over whom he had so earnestly 
watched became the happy subject of the Spirit's renewing 



228 MEMOIR OF 

work. In his greatest weakness, however, he continued to 
give directions and advice for the government of those upon 
whom the temporary care of his parish was resting. These 
youthful yet efficient helpers wxre occasionally aided by a 
visit from a neighboring clergyman; and after several 
weeks the Bishop secured the services of the Rev. George 
Taft, of North-Providence, whose labors proved truly accept- 
able and were evidently blessed. 

It was at least three months before the Bishop was able 
to preach another sermon. Before that time, however, and 
as soon as he left his chamber, he collected in his dining- 
room those who had become most decided Christians, as 
well as those who were most anxious to know the way of 
life ; and there, weak as he still was, sat down in the midst 
of them to instruct them more perfectly in the knowledge 
of that way, and to guide them more safely to the Saviour 
whom they sought. These were truly most affecting scenes. 
He was still so extremely feeble that his family hardly 
dared to hope for his permanent recovery. Every word, 
therefore, which he uttered was with an unction and an 
influence which few could have resisted and which none 
present wished to resist. And finally, when he was at 
length able to resume his labors in public, he had the 
sacred pleasure of laying his hands in confirmation on 
about one hundred persons, and admitting them to the 
Lord's table as the fruits of this gracious shedding forth 
of the holy spirit upon his beloved flock. Among them 
were two of his own children. 

As in the former case, in 1812, the work was not confined 
to his own parish. The other congregations in the town 
were largely, perhaps equally blessed. Such a season of all- 
pervading concern for the interests of the soul, says Dr. 
Tyng, " I have never since seen. For some days all busi- 
ness seemed suspended ; * * * and the 
whole aspect of the place was that of one long Sabbath. At 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 229 

every corner were persons gathered in religious conversa- 
tion. One subject of consideration seemed to occupy all 
minds. Few, indeed, were they who felt no interest in it. 
Many now in heaven, and many still on earth are rejoicing 
in the blessed effects of that ' season of refreshing from the 
presence of the Lord.' " 

Upon the series of incidents, which I have now recorded, 
it will not be inappropriate to offer a remark. 

It is manifest, then, that these incidents were not the 
effects of mere human agency and contrivance. Amidst the 
influences which then reigned, men were used, and men 
were affected. But, except so far as the regular means of 
grace were previously employed, men were used, not in 
originating those influences, but merely in cherishing and 
receiving them, with all their happy effects. The blessing 
evidently came in God's own way, and according to his 
gracious measure. The people, indeed, had been long 
trained to a knowledge of the truth, and kept in a greater 
or less sensibility to its power. They had seen it alive in 
their pastor, and were prepared for large measures of its 
effects on their own hearts and lives. But they needed a 
greater quickening under its power ; and this quickening 
came in a way which they least expected, and for which 
they were least prepared. It came in a way which took the 
thoughts off from mere human agency, and which carried all 
the glory of these fruits of the Gospel, where it of right be- 
longed, to God alone, who so graciously " shed forth that 
which wc have seen and heard." 

What, then, shall we say to such things ? Shall we say 
that they were a special honor conferred on the Church, in 
the legitimate use of appointed means, and through a minis- 
try of the pure Gospel] Or shall we say that such things 
were not designed for the Church, and are not the develop- 
ments to be sought in the ordinary use of means ? In oppos- 
ing such things, shall we run the risk, if peradventure God 



230 MEMOIR OF 

be in them, of virtually saying to him, " Withhold now thine 
hand, and restrain from us the living influences of thy free 
Spirit ? M On the contrary, is it not our wisdom, if we can 
not see it to be our duty to look, and long, and labor for 
such special fruits of our ministry, at least to hold our peace 
when they come ; and leave God, in his own way and his 
own measure, to honor his own Church and his own faithfully 
administered means of grace ? 

" The whole circumstances of the winter, to which I 
have referred," says Dr. Tyng, in closing his statement of 
the facts which have been narrated, " were to me most 
wonderful. I have always considered the labors to which 
I was then called the very best part of my education for 
the ministry. There was in the Bishop's character and 
labors nothing that encouraged extravagancies of any kind. 
He was extremely fond of social religious meetings among 
his people, and had a high opinion of their value and influ. 
ence. But I saw nothing and now remember nothing in 
those meetings to which any real Christian could reasonably 
object. Their influence was a manifest blessing. I have 
never seen a people more truly devoted to the welfare and 
institutions of our Church than those of his parish. And 
the whole of my subsequent experience and observation has 
convinced me that, w T hile no objections can be made against 
such a system of ministry as that which Bishop Griswold 
adopted, the real prosperity of religion may always be ex- 
pected to follow from its practice. In such peculiar seasons 
as that to which 1 have referred, some few unimportant 
things may occur which are afterward found to be inexpedi- 
ent. But these are temporary and soon pass by ; while the 
real advantages of the system of labor from which they 
have grown are permanent and most valuable." 

Of the dangerous character of the illness through which 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 231 

the Bishop was passing while his parish was thus realizing 
God's blessing on his past labors, anxieties, and prayers, we 
may judge from the statement of the friend to whom this 
part of the memoir has already been indebted : 

" I was," says she, " on a visit to his daughters at the 
time, and distinctly remember the circumstances of the dis- 
tressing scene, when he only 'appeared calm. In view of his 
expected departure he was perfectly composed, and gave 
such directions as proved that he thought himself near his 
end. He ordered some packages of his sermons to be 
burned in his presence, decidedly resisting the solicitations 
of some present to spare them. To one of his daughters he 
gave directions where to find other parcels of them, which 
she was requested to destroy in case of his death. I can 
recollect no particulars of his conversation at the time ; only, 
in general, that he spoke freely about leaving the world. 
One remark is now the only exception. i Why,' said he, as 
he noticed the grief of his afflicted family, ; why should I be 
unwilling to go home V " 

There spoke the heart of the Bishop. Heaven was its 
home; because, tenderly as it cleaved to family and to 
parishioners on earth, its best treasures were on high. Dili- 
gently as he loved to labor in the Church, he yet felt that, 
for him, " to depart and be with Christ was far better." 

His manner of life among his parishioners was ever that 
of modest, unpretending simplicity. He delighted in rural 
scenes and in rural employments. His garden was culti- 
vated by his own hands, and yielded him great pleasure. 
He never laid aside, in this respect, his early habits. Dr. 
Tvuu- relates an anecdote, as " a curious illustration" of this 
point : U A friend, in the neighborhood of Bristol, told him 
one day that he had a large quantity of apples, of which he 
should be glad to give his pastor a load ; but that he had no 



232 MEMOIR OF 

means of conveying them. The Bishop answered, that he 
would provide for that. In a few days he accordingly walked 
out to the farm, procured a yoke of oxen, yoked them to the 
cart, loaded it with apples, and drove them home himself. 
And yet," adds Dr. Tyng, " all these things he could do with- 
out any affectation of singularity or parade." To relieve his 
female domestics, " he uniformly cleaned the shoes of his 
guests, playfully remarking that he was thus washing the 
saints' feet." 

To go through with a regular history of Bishop Gris wold's 
parish ministry is not, of course, the object of this part of 
the memoir. To give a clear idea of the character and 
results of that ministry, and of the character and labors of 
the man while executing it, is all that I have had in view. 
This clear idea is now, I trust, before the mind of the reader. 
It will be enough, therefore, to add, in this place, that such 
as we have seen him in his work thus far, he continued to be 
till his removal to Salem. There his residence was too brief 
to give full scope and results to such a ministry as Ins ; 
while the growth of his Diocese, and the multiplication of 
his more public duties necessarily diminished the amount of 
labor which he was able to bestow on the parish. Even 
there, however, his labors were richly blessed, and he had a 
warm home in the best esteem and affections of his people. 
The congregation of St. Peter's rapidly increased under his 
ministry ; their ancient church-edifice gave place to one of 
larger dimensions, more enduring materials, and more appro- 
priate architecture ; and the best interests of religion felt 
an elevating and an onward impulse from the blessings of 
God on his faithful labors and on his effectual and fervent 
prayers. 

His characteristics, both as a man and as a preacher, have 
been so long passing in practical review before us, that it is 
unnecessary to pause here for the purpose of either enume- 
rating or describing them. What more remains to be seen 



BISHOP GRISWOLD, %S'3 

and to be said of him will naturally come up when we pro- 
ceed to follow him, away from both his Diocese and his 
parish, through the more interior and withdrawn relations of 
his domestic life. 



231 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BISHOP GRISWOLD. 

The last thread in the private life of Bishop Griswold 
which remains to be traced, was variously colored. What 
he was in his family we can very easily conceive from what 
we have seen of him in all the other relations of life— the 
just man, the hospitable friend, the affectionate and faithful 
husband, the tender and exemplary parent, the eminently 
blameless and holy Christian in all his most retired and daily 
walks ; inspiring in all who most closely and habitually 
observed him, the most entire respect and the most unques- 
tioning confidence. Perhaps the best human tribute that 
can be paid to Christian character is that which a father 
receives from his children, when he so walks, from day to 
day, and from year to year, before those silent but most 
searching observers, as never for a moment to excite, in 
their inmost thoughts, a doubt of the reality and value of his 
religion, or of the sincerity and truth of his religious profes. 
sions. This tribute, I have reason to believe, was awarded 
by his children to the subject of this memoir. During the 
whole of his Episcopal life, his house was a sort of home for 
his clergy, whenever they visited the place of his residence ; 
and for transient clergymen, who were seeking, through his 
influence, a place of settlement. His children, of course, had 
many opportunities for silently observing and comparing the 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 235 

characters of a great number of the ministers of Christ. And 
the respect which they all felt for religion, together with the 
fact that an unusually large proportion of them were them- 
selves truly religious, is, on the whole, a very valuable testi- 
mony to the character of those whom they were called thus 
closely to observe. And yet, I once heard one of his daugh- 
ters make the remark, that she had often been pained by 
noticing in the clergy who visited the family things not per- 
fectly consistent with their high and holy character and office ; 
that she had never seen but one in whom no such inconsist- 
ency was observable ; and that this was the one whom she 
had known longest and observed most closely — her own 
revered father. 

Of children, the Bishop, as we have seen, was naturally 
and remarkably fond. And yet, after he became a Bishop, 
so numerous and engrossing were his cares, and so little time 
had he, consequently, for his necessary studies, that he was 
seldom or never able to spend a moment in that free and 
endearing intercourse with his own children in which the 
heart of a tender parent so much delights. He thus became, 
by degrees and habitually, reserved and distant in his inter- 
course with them. Incessant business, and study which he 
might not forego, made this unavoidable. Of this fact his 
son, the Rev. George Griswold, takes notice in one of his 
letters ; attributing his father's reserve to the right cause, but 
mourning over its effects, in preventing that free, unbosom- 
ing confidence, which is ever so desirable between parent 
and child. And yet "his children were never wanting in 
tender affection for him, or in unquestioning confidence in 
him. Nor did the Bishop himself ever lose his natural fond- 
ness for children. It is to this, as well as to his remarkable 
power of self-abstraction in the midst of surrounding con- 
versation and business, that we may attribute the circum- 
stance, that the playful noises of children in the same room 
never disturbed him in the midst of even his profoundest 



230 MEMOIR OF 

studies. Says one of his friends, from whose communica- 
tion I have already quoted, " He could, when occasion re- 
quired, abstract his mind in a remarkable degree, yet without 
becoming wholly regardless of what was passing in his 
presence. Jf, as it often happened, he was engaged in 
writing or other study in the same room with his family, an 
occasional appeal to him, while it received an immediately 
intelligent and appropriate reply, yet seemed no interruption 
to his pursuits. And I have heard him say that the noise 
of children in the same room never disturbed his studies, 
unless it was the noise of discord. ," 

A little anecdote which has reached me shows very 
beautifully how long and how livingly he retained his 
natural fondness for little children. He had broken away 
from the confinement, the labors, and the studies of his win- 
ter season, and gone, one sweet spring, upon a tour into 
Vermont — with all his peculiar sensibilities alive and open 
to the blessed influences of all-rejoicing nature, the magnifi- 
cence of mountain-scenes, the fragrance of the fields, and the 
music of the groves. At Middlebury, after the labors of 
the day in that place, he was sitting in his usual quiet and 
silent mood, enjoying the luxury of the season and the scene, 
when the children of his friend and hostess came romping 
past him in all that mirth and glee which childhood only 
knows. Their mother bade them, " Hush !" lest they should 
disturb the good Bishop. Ci Oh ! no !" said he, with a smile 
as cheerful and a voice as winning as theirs, " let them play ; 
their little noises are sweeter to me than the music of the 
birds." 

The following home-sketches are, in substance, from the 
friend of whom I have so often spoken : 

" Of his hospitality I would fain speak, for it was one of 
the most conspicuous traits of his character. It would, how- 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 237 

ever, be scarce possible to do justice to the delight which he 
evinced in obeying on this subject the divine injunction. 
Not merely to the clergy of his Diocese, who always found 
his house a home whenever they pleased, but also the friend 
and stranger were alike sure to meet a welcome reception ; 
and his obliging manner would seem to imply that they were 
rather conferring than receiving a favor by their visit. 

" His natural taciturnity was perceptibly thrown off while 
performing the rites of hospitality. He showed great 
pleasure when even the youthful associates of his children 
were present to share those rites ; and always encouraged a 
free and generous intercourse between his own and the child- 
ren of all his acquaintance, wholly disregarding in this the 
arbitrary distinctions of wealth and influence. 

" To those about him, it was a subject of admiring wonder 
that one so encompassed and often harassed, as he was 
with public toils and cares, and so oppressed as he some, 
times was with domestic griefs and trials, should be able to 
meet them all with an equanimity of mind which no circum- 
stances of difficulty, however perplexing, could move to the 
utterance of an unchristian feeling. There were no detached 
periods, no great occasions of his life when his peculiar and 
distinguished virtues shone with a special lustre, as though 
they were a something put on to suit the time or the place. 
They were a consistent whole — the daily apparel of his soul ; 
and among them his Christian lowliness was, if possible, 
most perceptible and most habitual. That his praise was in 
all his Churches, he well knew ; that his near friends and 
immediate parishioners almost idolized him, he knew as 
well : yet all this knowledge only deepened his humility ; to 
3uch close self-examination was he habituated, and so severely 
did he compare himself with the divine requirements, and 
not with any human standard. 

His accessibility to his friends and parishioners at all times 
was remarkable. A smile of pleasant recognition, peculiar 



288 MEMOIR OF 

to himself, was ever ready to greet them, whenever and 
how often-soever they might call. Not ^infrequently an in- 
dividual would so prolong his visit as seriously to involve 
the exercise of his patience in listening to details of unim- 
portant matter, and when it would seem a waste of his pre- 
cious time to be thus engrossed. But the same patient for- 
bearance which characterised him on other occasions was 
here also exhibited in striving to inform the ignorant and 
to make them feel that they had a claim on his time and at- 
tention as their spiritual father and guide. 

Economy, he said, he practised more from principle than 
from necessity. He considered it the Christian's duty to be 
economical, that he might have the more to " give to him 
that needeth." It was of time, however, that he was most 
economical. Rising at an early hour, he industriously pro- 
secuted the duties of each day as they demanded his atten- 
tion, discharging each and all with singular fidelity. 

In consequence of his economy of money, it is known to 
the writer that he not only saved enough to prevent the 
actual suffering of those whom he might leave behind, but 
also through life was constant in his benefactions to the suf- 
fering poor, and to the customary objects of Christian bene- 
ficence. He received with gratitude, but he gave with joy. 

" His self-denial was always great. As a proof that he 
would not indulge in self-gratification, he would never, till 
age and infirmity rendered such indulgence necessary, go 
out of his way or prolong a journey to visit the wonderful 
scenes of nature, of which he was nevertheless so fond- 
Many times," (says his friend) " he told me his joiimeyings 
took him within twenty miles of the White Mountains ; but 
he had never indulged in a nearer view of them." Though 
his heart longed for a sight of those stupendous works of 
God, he yet passed them by, simply because the pressure of 
his multiplied duties was so great and so constant that con- 
science would have been more troubled by their neglect than 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 239 

even his natural tastes would have been gratified by indul- 
gence. 

His conversational powers were exceedingly great when- 
ever he would allow them to be drawn out. Occasionally 
his friends enjoyed opportunities for this, either when 
travelling with him or when presuming to elicit his views 
on important subjects at home. The call of friendship for 
important information or instruction which he had it in his 
power to impart, was a key which often succeeded in unlock- 
ing his rich and varied treasures. 

li It is an error to suppose that Bishop Griswold in the 
daily cultivation of his eminent holiness had to contend with 
no opposition from within, or that his habitually devotional 
spirit was the easy growth of an amiable and passive tem- 
perament. Those who are best qualified to judge know 
best the falseness of this conclusion. In early life, and before 
the more distinct development of his Christian character, he 
was disposed to be very satirical. With naturally quick 
perceptions, a discriminating mind, and an abundance of wit, 
a little reflection will suffice to show that the induls-ence of 
his strong propensities was not calculated to produce a devo- 
tional spirit. No, his piety was no easy growth of a facile, 
unresisting nature. It was God's blessing, through the pow- 
erful influences of the Spirit on his laborious endeavor, his 
strong wrestling with nature, his ever-stru££lin" resolve 

O O " CO o 

to subdue his disposition, and to ' bring every thought into 
captivity to the obedience of Christ;' it was this that 
gave him so perfect a victory ; this that proved the secret 
of his amazing advancement in holiness of life. He was 
never off his guard, always at his post in this divinely-sus- 
tained warfare against the evil workings of nature within." 

The Bishop's friendships were peculiarly close, and cordial, 
and being of a specially Christian character, were seldom or 
never terminated but by death. Carefully formed, he clung 
to them for life : and the death of one tried friend made 



240 MEMOIR OF 

him cling more fondly to those who remained. He had the 
most delicate perception of the true nature and value of 
friendship. None better than he understood and appreciated 
the meaning of that weighty word, and it is to be regretted 
that the limits of this abridgment will not allow of the in- 
troduction of even tho >e few of his private letters to those 
whom he classed amrng the number of his special friends, 
which his biographe has succeeded in recovering. 

We must now t lrn away from mere general sketches of 
domestic charact»* and life, and from the pleasing inter- 
course of private friendship, to other views of our subject. 
The domestic lift; bf Bishop Griswold had its dark as well as 
its bright scery?, f >. It was emphatically a life of sorrows. 
When he rem:yed from Harwinton to Bristol, he took with 
aim a belove i tfife and eight beautiful and promising child- 
ten. When Le left Bristol for Salem, they were all, with a 
tiingle except on, sleeping among the dead; and the one ex- 
cepted foon followed them, as did three of the other six 
jyho were born after his settlement in Bristol, so that of his 
jriiole freehold of fourteen, but three survived the date of 
nis own decease. 

B7.it his were peculiarly sanctified sorrows. If his emi- 
nent holiness was in part the fruit of God's blessing on his 
own strenuous warfare through life with the strong tenden- 
cies of nature within him, it was also in no inconsiderable 
measure the result of the sanctifying influences of the Holy 
Spirit, as they commingled in sweet and blessed power with 
the deep and ever-deepening stream of his griefs. With a 
constitutional temperament like his, so full of the workings 
of powerful sentiment, and so strongly inclined to a contem- 
plative and pensive sadness, if not to depression and even to 
despondency, his numerous afflictions, spread as they were 
at intervals over a large portion of his long life, could not 
but move him strongly, and leave on his nature deep and 
indelible traces. And yet mingled, as these many afflictions 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 241 

were, with the daily exercise of a most devoutly submissive 
and obedient heart, they richly blessed the nature which they 
so strongly moved, and every trace which they left on it 
was a line of heavenly beauty, adding here a little and there 
a little to the growing image within his soul of his most 
loved and worshipped Lord. 

Of the successive deaths which occurred in his family, I 
have received but few special notices. His first wife died 
silently and almost instantaneously, while he was sleeping 
by her side, on the night of the 10th of September, 1817. 
They had both retired to rest in their usual health. But in 
the course of the night he was aroused by an unusual sound, 
and upon speaking to her, perceived that something strange 
affected her. He sprang for a light ; but upon returning 
with it to the bed-side, her spirit was not there. The lifeless 
body of his dear companion alone remained. Dark indeed 
was that night to him ; and dark many of the nights and 
days which followed it. Three of his beautiful children had 
already faded out of his sight, and now he was left, without 
a conjugal sharer in his sorrows, to stand alone and see the 
rest droop and disappear. And yet he stood not alone, for 
God was with him, and his nights and days were not dark, 
for the light of the Divine countenance was shining on his 
soul. 

Perhaps the affliction which most severely tried and 
most nearly prostrated his physical powers was the death 
of his daughter, Julia, in 1826. Being about nineteen 
years old when her mother died, and her only elder sister 
who survived being married to Mr. John De Wolf, she 
at once found herself called to the difficult and responsible 
position of sister-mother to the younger children of the 
family. In this position she had for eight years been the 
female head of her father's household, the companion of 
his widowed days, and the sharer of his confidence and 
his cares; and being a woman of uncommon loveliness of 

11 



242 MEMOIR OF 

native and of Christian character, his heart cleaved to her 
with even more than the ordinary tenderness of a father for 
a favorite daughter. When, therefore, she also began to 
pale before the approach of the wan destroyer of his family, 
and at length lay cold under the wasting touch of a con- 
sumption, although his faith bore the stroke without a mur- 
mur and his submission bent meekly beneath his Father's 
chastening, yet his natural man reeled before the shock and 
seemed ready to become a broken as well as a bruised reed. 
The friend whom I have so often quoted, and who was then 
much in his family, says that, "Soon after his daughter 
Julia's death, his despondency became quite alarming, and 
fears were felt that he would sink under the pressure of 
this peculiarly distressing visitation. He was, indeed, 
grateful for the kind attempts of his friends to comfort 
him, yet he justified himself in his deep mourning on the 
ground that he { was called to mourn, that there was a cause 
for all the suffering which God brought upon his people ; 
and that we but carried out his purposes in bringing such 
trials upon us by yielding to the impulses of our hearts in 
weeping, mourning, and lamentation, although this would 
profit us nothing without the accompaniment of prayer that 
the affliction might be sanctified.' " 

How he was carried through this sore bereavement we 
have seen in the brief notice formerly taken of his journey 
to Canada, in the summer of 1826 ; how, during that excur- 
sion, in company with two dear friends, he was soothed in 
mind and invigorated in * health while looking abroad upon 
the bright and beautiful works of his Father, and observing 
the numberless new and interesting objects which solicited 
his attention along the way ; yet how, on his return, as he 
approached his twice lonely and desolated home, he felt the 
inner spring of his sorrows opened afresh, and the moment- 
ary rushing through his soul of their yet full and bitter 
waters. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 243 

In the little church-yard in Bristol, and just behind the 
chancel, is a row of eight white marble tomb-stones. It is 
the burial-place of that part of the Bishop's family which he 
left behind on his removal to Salem ; and the epitaphs 
which he caused to be inscribed on their memorials are 
peculiarly expressive of the feelings with which he laid 
them successively, side by side, in their lowly sleep. Thus, 
when his wife was called suddenly from her midnight 
slumbers, he could hear in the startling summons naught 
but the voice of God, and so he wrote over her, " Not as I 
will, O Heavenly Father, but as thou wilt." But when his 
daughter Julia faded slowly before him, although he heard 
that same voice still, nor murmured at its bidding, yet he 
heard it with the ear of a fathers heart. Nature sighed 
while grace submitted, and so he graved on her marble, " Ye 
that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like 
unto my sorrow." Similarly appropriate inscriptions are 
read above the rest, and many a thoughtful passer-by has 
been reminded by them that affliction was the furnace in 
which the gold of his character was purified, and that it was 
" through much tribulation" that he finally "entered into 
the kingdom of God." 

For nearly two years after the death of this daughter 
the Bishop lived on in his loneliness ; but at the close of 
the year 1827, or the opening of 1828, he entered into a 
second matrimonial connection. The lady whom he mar- 
ried was Mrs. Amelia Smith, whose former husband was a 
brother of the present Bishop of Kentucky. In this worthy 
lady he found a new soother of his days and a new sharer 
of his cares ; and with her, as his numerous letters, some 
of which have been quoted, show, he lived in happy and 
growing affection till the day of his death. 

The next breach which was made upon his family was 
in the decease of his son, the Rev. George Griswold, of 
which I have already made mention. He was a young 



244 MEMOIR OF 

clergyman of great pieiy and promise ; officiated for a 
while in Trinity Church, Boston, and after Dr. Jarvis's 
resignation, in St. Paul's ; was settled for a while over the 
new parish in Northampton; and finally became the 
assistant and successor of Dr. Keith, in the rectorship 
of Christ Church, Alexandria. 

The early days of this dear youth were days of sadness, 
and made him long familiar with the thought of a brief 
term of life, at times even anxious for his better home on 
high. 

After his removal to a warmer climate in Alexandria, 
the flame of his life and hopes burnt up more brightly, and 
he even began to be pleased with the thought of a longex 
period of life and usefulness. 

This period of sunshine, however, proved as brief as it 
was bright. After his settlement as Dr. Keith's successor, 
and his marriage with Miss Coombs, of Washington, his 
health again sunk, and he was induced to try a voyage to 
Cuba, in the hope of its recovery and of being still per- 
mitted to enjoy the new and delightful relations into which 
he had so recently entered. Vain hope ! After spending 
the winter abroad without benefit, he returned to New 
York only to learn that both his wife and the little one 
whom during his absence she had borne him had just been 
laid together in the tomb ! With barely strength enough 
to support his steps, he therefore hastened home to Bristol, 
feeling no other wish than to embrace once more his beloved 
and honored parent, and there, amidst his now intensely 
kindled longings after heaven, to lay down his weary head 
and die. He survived his return three months, and was 
then at rest. 

This was, in a strong sense, a triple bereavement to 
Bishop Griswold; but, like others which preceded and 
followed it, while it struck away the prop on which he 
had rested his hope of seeing a son and survivor in the 



BISHOP GUIS WOLD. 245 

ministry, it did but make him lean more confidingly on 
God, and grow strong for the better ministry which in heaven 
awaited both father and son. The remains of the deceased 
were removed to Washington, that they might rest with 
those of his young wife and child. 

Several subsequent deaths occurred in the Bishop's family; 
but none of which I have received any account, till we come 
to the last before his own, that of his second George, which 
occurred in April, 1S42. This child was the " son of his 
old age," and worthy, perhaps, of being specially beloved. 

From Dr. Hale, the family physician, and from others, I 
have received some of the facts connected with his last 
illness. 

He was a most interesting lad, of twelve years of age ; a 
boy of high promise, both in mental and in moral endow- 
ments. His scholarship was of a superior order, and his 
religious developments unusual for his years. But in the 
spring of 1842 he was suddenly attacked by the scarlet 
fever, and so overwhelming was the onset that in forty- 
eight hours there ceased to be any ground of hope for his 
recovery. A sort of indistinct hope, indeed, was fostered 
by the mere fact that he still lived ; but it was little better 
than hoping against hope. And yet he lingered a whole 
week longer, though in a raving delirium and in great 
apparent distress. For much of the time the only evidence 
that he was conscious even of the presence of his parents 
was in the fact of his quiet stillness while they were pray- 
ing with him or reading to him the Scriptures. It was 
most affecting to notice the subdued agony of his father as 
he would, from time to time, approach the bed-side of the 
little sufferer, look at him for a moment in silent earnest- 
ness, and then withdraw to his own room; again and Sgain 
returning and withdrawing at intervals of a few minutes, 
with a repetition of the same silent act, the same silent 
look of intense but unuttered anguish. In his withdraw!; 



246 MEMOIR OF 

moments he was often heard engaged in prayer for the 
sick one, especially that the dear child might be permitted 
before his departure to give some token of consciousness 
and of his being accepted of God. And, apparently, the 
desire was granted ; for just before the closing scene it was 
announced that George had a lucid interval and was engaged 
in prayer. Instantly the father was kneeling at the foot of 
his bed, and with a full gush of tears listening to the simple, 
intelligent, and fervent supplications of his dying child for 
his beloved parents as well as for his own soul. After 
this the little sufferer relapsed into his delirium and soon 
expired. 

This sickness and death, says Dr. Hale, were attended 
with a "most striking exhibition of the Bishop's Christian 
virtues. It reminded one most forcibly of the case of David, 
when mourning for his sick child." There was indeed the 
same silent and submissive yet prostrate and agonizing 
waiting upon God while the child lived ; and this was fol- 
lowed by a similar immediate and calm return to duty, as 
soon as the child was dead ; for, the morning after the 
funeral, the Bishop set off, as we have seen, for Rhode Island 
in fulfillment of long-standing appointments ; suppressing his 
deep grief, that he might fail in no plighted duty. 

Thus onwards for a few months longer were his days of 
mourning passed. In the outward condition of his Diocese, 
as we have seen, those days were at length overspread with 
the sunshine of calm prosperity. Yet this was to him but 
the breaking out of a setting sun, around which the quiet and 
chastened griefs of his own mind hung a softened and sober 
drapery of clouds. This drapery, it is true, was all tinged 
and burnished with rich and glorious colors, still those 
colors were but as the mellow lights which sometimes come 
over the forehead of evening, just before he gathers around 
his head the thick curtains of night* 

The measure of Bishop Griswold's life was, in truth, full ; 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 247 

full of years and full of usefulness ; with no more sorrows to 
be added, and with few more days for the ripening of those 
fruits of holiness which grow from sorrows sanctified. 
Even his labors, which lasted as long as his life, were 
speedily to terminate. For scarcely had he. at the close of 
the year 1842, laid his ordaining hand on the head of his 
successor, and felt that there was a living song of peace and 
joy ascending to heaven from the heart of his Diocese, 
when the word went forth, " Thy work is finished. Well 
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord." 

In the closing incidents of his life, there was something 
exceedingly peculiar. On Saturday, the 11th of February, 
1843, the aged Bishop closes his essays on the Eeformation, 
the last sentence of which contains these words of weight to 
every Protestant Episcopalian : " ' To the law and the tes- 
timony,' use ' the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you 
free;' 'search the Scriptures,' and pray God so to en- 
lighten your minds that you may truly understand them." 
This done, he lays down his pen and proceeds to a neighbor- 
ing town to meet an official appointment. The morning of 
Wednesday the 15th, however, finds him at home again, and 
girding himself for further work. At his usual early hour 
he gathers his family around him. and reads the sacred page. 
The chapter in course is the first in the Epistle to the Phi- 
lippians, in which the following passage arrests a special at- 
tention : " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But 
if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor ; yet what 
I shall choose I wot not; for I am in a strait betwixt two 
having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, winch is far 
better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful 
for you." Closing the book, he now commends his house- 
hold, in morning prayer, to their Father in l-awn ; listens 
.o the music of a favorite air, whose pensive strain is in har- 
mony with his spirit, and then enters on the customary 



248 MEMOIR OF BISHOP GRISWOLD. 

duties of the clay. As it wears towards its close, one of 
those duties calls him to the residence of Bishop Eastburn. 
Thither, therefore, he sets forth, and with his usually firm 
step he approaches the house. Here, however, he finds him- 
self in an instant amidst the scenes which blend eternity 
with time. The last sand in the glass of his life drops. 
His step falters, and he falls; rises again, and reaches the 
door. It was the limit of his race. With his last step he 
bows his head to the threshold, and — dies. In the presence 
of his son in the Church, he rests at once from his labors, 
and without a sigh or groan feels " mortality swallowed up 
of lifer 

So God willed. And thus, long-warned, yet at last un- 
warned, this faithful servant closed his toils and laid down 
his commission, yielded his ready spirit, and dropped his 
rich mantle at the very feet of him who had been sent to 
stand up in his stead, to carry forward his work, and to 
ripen into his graces. 



APPENDIX. 



The following short collection of original thoughts, hints 
to subjects, etc., is made from a much larger mass of similar 
materials, found chiefly on loose slips of paper, in Bishop 
Griswold's hand, and in the drawers of his secretary. It is 
inserted here for three principal reasons : 1. These thoughts 
show the character of the Bishop's mind as at work within 
itself. 2. They illustrate his mode of preparing subjects 
for fuller discussion. 3. They are of intrinsic beauty and 
value, and therefore worthy of this special preservation. 

THOUGHTS, IX THE FORM OF SIMILE. 

Uninterrupted prosperity, like continual sunshine, parches 
the soil even of a godly heart. Clouds of sorrow and 
storms of adversity are necessary to purify the moral 
atmosphere, to water our Christian graces, and to make 
the heart fruitful. 

You may as well think to silence an echo by strength 
of voice as to convince a prejudiced disputant by strong 
argument. As in the former the echo will but grow the 
louder and still have the last word, so in the latter, the 

11* 



250 APPENDIX. 

stronger your argument, the fiercer will his answers be, 
and the more certainly will he have the last word in the 
controversy. 

The errors and faults of a true Christian are like a line 
drawn by a trembling hand, which, though rough and 
ragged, yet tends towards the right point ; while those of 
the wicked are like a line drawn in a wrong direction, 
which, even where smoothest, is often most fatally out of 
the way. 

In serving God or obeying his commandments, let us, 
like the poor widow in the Gospel, show our good will, 
though we must, by the vary littleness of the offering, 
betray our deep poverty. 

A hypocrite is like a heathen temple, splendid and beau- 
tiful without, but within what is most prominent and most 
adored is some deformed image or some hideous monster. 

They who, in contesting trivial and unessential points, 
break the bond of charity, are like some ancient idolaters 
who in worshiping a fly would sacrifice an ox. 

In theology, deep investigation is like digging ore from 
the mine, while practical preaching is like fashioning the 
metal for use. 

Christians should use ancient literature and human learn- 
ing as the Israelites did the gold which they brought out of 
pt ; not when they fashioned it into a molten calf and 
worshipped it, but when they applied it to beautify the 
temple and adorn the worship of God. 

An eminent man without religion is in some respects like 
a barren mountain, which encumbers the ground with its 
bulk, presses the world by its weight, and chills the atmo- 
sphere with its coldne 

Those Christians who are most strenuous in things of 
little importance are, like the Pharisees of old, most likely 
to fail in the weightier matters of the law. It is those who 
are yielding in non-essentials who are most apt to be stable 



APPENDIX. 251 

in fundamental principles. The willow will bend to the 
blast, yet keep its root in the ground, while the sturdy 
pine, proudly opposing its unbending trunk to the storm, 
fails often at the root and is overthrown. 

The life of man is like the track of a vessel through the 
ocean ; for a short time it is full of motion and of sparkles, 
but it is soon still again and vanishes from view. 

MISCELLANEOUS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS. 

A single thought often outlives an empire. 

The world often misjudges the advantages of a life well 
spent. Many men, though without religion, are privileged 
to depart this world with applause, while devoted Christians 
are sometimes hissed off the stage of life. 

Ministers often prematurely administer comfort to the 
troubled conscience. A skillful physician would be cautious 
of extinguishing a fever which was but an effort of nature to 
throw off some morbific agent from the system. If, indeed, 
the fever were so violent as of itself to threaten life, he 
would then treat it as a malady ; otherwise he would aim 
chiefly at the removal of its cause. So should we treat the 
awakened sinner. If his troubled mind be driving him to 
despondence and to distrust of God's mercy, it is diseased, 
and should be treated accordingly. But short of this, let 
the terrors of the law and the probe of conscience find the 
bottom of his wound and effect a radical and permanent 
cure of his corrupt nature. 

A aeparture from what God's word really teaches is 
heresy ; a violation of what the Church lawfully requires is 
schism. 

In relation to the Jewish Church the Samaritans were 
schismatics; and yet it is a remarkable fact that Christ a 
ministry was often more successful with them than with 
the orthodox Jews. 



252 APPENDIX. 

If we are born but once, we shall die twice ; but if we are 
born twice, we shall die but once. 

God now saves by means, not by miracles. 

He who has too much learning to study the Scriptures 
has too much wisdom to be taught of God ; and he who is 
too much of a gentleman to be religious, is either above or 
below the character of a Christian. 

My sermons have had some good effect on myself if not 
on others. My endeavor has been first to preach them to 
myself, and, like Herod, I have at least done many things in 
consequence. 

The true doctrines of grace are most apt to be expressed 
in prayer. Says Luther : " In affection and practice men 
are different from what they are in disputation and argu- 
ment." This is because reason is more corrupt and oftener 
erroneous than conscience. Hence, in prayer, all power and 
goodness are usually ascribed to God, all impotence and 
evil to man. 

That Christian dresses most as he ought whose apparel 
attracts least attention, either by its finery or by its plain- 
ness. 

Heretofore the Jews have been inclined to reject the 
Book of Daniel, and Christians that of Eevelation. Now 
both begin to be respected, a proof that the time of their 
main prophecies is at hand, and a fact from which useful 
reflections may be deduced. 

Enthusiasm is commended in every thing but religion ; 
" In science it is genius ; in vice it is spirit ; but in religion 
it is madness." Religion alone, as most men judge, is 
what we are to treat with apathy and indifference. 

THOUGHTS ON PREACHERS AND PREACHING. 

Though, with Dr. "Watts, I must say that I can not imagine 
any connection between the swinging of a man's arms and 



APPENDIX. 2bo 

the truths of Christianity, yet I have nothing to say against 
gesticulation in the delivery of sermons, for public opinion 
would probably be against me. What is natural, indeed, 
involuntary and unobserved by the speaker, is certainly 
proper ; but everything of the kind which is studied, affected, 
and artificial, has and is intended to have the effect of 
drawing attention to the speaker ; and the more this is done 
the less good is effected. This may well account for what- 
is so commonly seen, that preachers remarkable for a studied 
gracefulness in their delivery and much admired as fine 
speakers produced but little effect in changing the heart 
and converting their hearers to the truth of God. A 
preacher, to do his best and be most successful, should 
forget himself, and have in his mind his subject only and 
a purpose of persuading his hearers to believe what he 
teaches, and to live accordingly. His great object should 
be to carry his point. The more suitable and perfect the 
style and maimer of a preacher, the less will this style and 
manner be either praised or thought of. A congregation 
will perceive and feel the difference between a preacher's 
u reciting something before them and his saying something 
to them."' 

Of M (a popular preacher of that time) I have 

nothing to sav. But one of the most common and most 
perilous evils in the effect of popular preaching is the mis- 
taking of carnal affection for religious feeling. People are 
in danger of supposing that they love the doctrines of life 
when it is the manner of teaching them that pleases. They 
are not. as they suppose, attracted by the Saviour, but only 
enamored of his ministers. When a preacher is posse-- I 
of those qualifications which naturally please, religion itself 
we are ready to believe, is delightful; as a child 1< 
physic inclosed in sugar. It should be better remembered 



254 APPENDIX. 

that it is not, in such case, the physic that is loved, nor the 
sugar that restores health. 

When a young preacher of a good person, fine voice, 
pleasing address, lively imagination, and graceful eloquence 
is very popular, in estimating the religious effect of his 
preaching, the impression made on females under forty is 
not at all to be considered, and a very large deduction 
must be made in the case of the remainder of his hearers. 

Such is our nature, that it is scarce possible we should 
not love popularity. There are very few, who if it were in 
their power would not acquire it. The love of fame is justly 
styled " the universal passion." Folly consists rather in the 
rendering than in the desiring of popularity. The love of 
praise is as justifiable as the love of money. But neither 
should be indulged except to the extent in which it is 
justly due. It may reasonably be questioned whether 
Christians can with propriety unite in rendering such ex- 
treme homage to a popular idol as we sometimes witness. 
It is not to be supposed that any man can be so infinitely 
more deserving than all his fellow-creatures as te be justly 
so caressed, while thousands of good and faithful Christians 
are comparatively neglected. Among other evil effects of 
this, it operates as a great discouragement to those who 
possess not popular attractions. 

When the Christian preacher speaks to best effect, the 
hearers think least of him. It is an evidence of our faithful- 
ness when the congregation retire from the Lord's house 
silent and thoughtful ; when they " salute no man by the 
way ;" and when their minds are deeply impressed with the 
truths which they have heard, without thinking any thing at 
all of the preacher. 

There is no sin which more easily or more often besets 



APPENDIX. 255 

the ministers of Christ, those especially who are young, than 
the desire to preach themselves rather than Christ ; to seek 
their own glory ; to put themselves forward to view, while 
the Saviour is kept in the back-ground ; to seek admiration 
and popular applause. If the preacher's aim be to honor 
himself by a display of his learning, or elocpence, or taste, 
or fine imagination, or even of his piety and zeal, he is an 
unfaithful preacher ; though in word he preaches the truth, 
and that only. This vain-glory often causes preachers to 
devote an undue proportion of time to the preparation of 
fine sermons, and to the polishing of their periods, to the 
neglect of other duties. Let our eye be single, and our 
whole body will be full of light. 

There is no other preaching that will be so successful in 
changing the heart and turning men to God, as preaching 
the word in plainness and sincerity ; because this is the or- 
dinance which God has appointed for that purposes. We 
know that " preaching the cross of Christ is to them that 
perish, foolishness ;" but it " pleases God by such foolishness 
to save them that believe."' The profaneness of scoffers, the 
boldness of infidelity are best and oftenest subdued by 
preaching the cross of Christ. Though the Ark be shaken, 
yet we need not fear, but go forward as the Lord directs. 
He shows the foolishness of human wisdom by "choosing 
the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and 
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise*" 

The preacher's business and duty are. not to please the 

imagination, but to mend the heart, and reform the lives of 
his hearers ; not so much to invent new things, as t« i 
the practice of old truths, long established and often taught 
In works of taste, designed chiefly for pleasure, many 'things 
may be valued merely because they arc new. Religious 
discourses are profitable only for doctrine, reproof, cor- 



256 APPENDIX. 

rection, and instruction in righteousness. If a man were 
hungry, would he object to wholesome food because he had 
before fed on the same dish 1 Doctrines which have often 
been taught, and duties which have been frequently urged, 
may still be necessary for spiritual sustenance. The excel- 
lence of this spiritual food consists not in its novelty, nor in 
the elegant style in which it is served up, but in its whole- 
some nature and solid nourishment. 

He is no true shepherd who delights to be at the feast of 
sheep-shearing but sets others to feed the flock. How im- 
portant that we who daily teach others to renounce the 
w r orld, should set the example ! We admit none to baptism 
but on this condition ; and shall we take on ourselves the 
sacred office of spiritual shepherds and guides, while yet 
we cherish* a love of the world in our hearts and exhibit a 
conformity to the world in our lives ? 

We ought to speak of those faults to which our hearers 
are most subject ; the " sins which most easily beset them. 5 ' 
For a preacher to dwell on those faults which his auditors 
are not at present likely to commit is as though a physician 
should prescribe for a patient in a burning fever nothing 
but some directions how to avoid taking a cold. Thus, it is 
not unfrequently the case that a congregation inclined to 
lukewarmness are earnestly warned against enthusiasm. 

Spiritual sleep has no waking hours. It is like that of 
Lazarus — the sleep of death ! The soul can not, will not, of 
itself awake. The preacher's voice must be heard before 
Lazarus will u come forth." 

Speculative writers have, indeed, said fine things of credi- 
bility, and of the nature, force, and degree of evidence, as if 
we had scales for weighing truth to a single grain ; whereas, 



APPENDIX. 257 

in fact, man, with all his boasted balancings and reasonings, 
can resist a proof at which even devils tremble. 

There is vast importance in a union of praying with 
preaching ; the one for obtaining help from God, without 
whom we can do nothing ; the other for imparting the know- 
ledge of Christ, without which there is no converting and 
saving the souls of men. The Apostles would " give them- 
selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the 
word." How different the conduct of those dignitaries of 
the Church, in some parts of the world, who, when they 
have reached the Apostleship, and when they ought to be 
the " servants of all," instead of giving themselves continu- 
ally to prayer and the ministry of the word, neglect both ; 
employing chaplains to pray for them, and settling curates 
to preach! Well might Jewel say, "A bishop ^ould die 
preaching." 

Preaching was unduly extolled in Puritan days, and un- 
duly degraded after the Restoration. 

Some who contend for prayer as opposed to preaching, 
do, so far as we can judge, pray the least of any Christians. 

Few things appear less reasonable than the words which 
have been wasted to show that praying is more important 
than preaching. We certainly should consider the fruit, in 
itself, as more valuable than the labor which produces ir. 
Yet the importance of the labor will be in proportion to the 
value of the fruit. Men may plant and water, but God 
giveth the increase ; and the question is, whether he will 
give it if the husbandman neglect to labor? The labor 
may be unsuccessful ; for the Lord may withhold the in- 
crease : generally, however, the labor, if wise and faithful, 
will be blessed. So when the spiritual sower casts forth the 
seed of God's word, some of it, as Christ says, may fall by 
the way-side, and some on stony ground, and other some 
among thorns ; yet some will fall on good ground, and 
bring forth abundant fruit. 



*258 APPENDIX. 

Suppose, then, a thousand souls, for several years, hear the 
preaching of a faithful minister of Christ ; if one hundred of 
them are truly converted to God, then a hundred praying 
people are the fruit of one man's preaching ; and they will 
not only pray, not only " call him Lord," but become " doers 
of the word,' 5 fruitful in all good works. But, had he ne- 
glected to preach, and spent all his religious hours in praying, 
would that fruit have been produced? "How shall they 
call on Him of whom they have not heard 1 And how shall 
they hear without a preacher V Besides, no men pray less, 
but more, in consequence of preaching. This is the ordi- 
nance which God in his wisdom hath ordained for gathering 
mankind into the fold of his Church ; and the gathering 
will not come without the use of the ordinance. 

t 

When a minister, by elegant composition, and other 

means, seeks the reputation of a fine scholar, or aims at his 
own glory and interest, the people are so far under no obli- 
gations for his services. But when he disregards his own 
fame and temporal advantage, and is earnestly engaged in 
seeking their spiritual welfare, the salvation of their souls, 
they are bound to provide for him, and they will provide 
for him. They will feel grateful to such an one ; they will 
see that such a laborer is " worthy of his hire ;" worthy even 
of " double honor." 

Why is it less inconsistent with our devotion to God and 
the souls of men, to pursue literature for either honor or 
pleasure than it is with the same views to pursue riches ? 

THOUGHTS ON CHURCH MATTERS. 

It is often said that our Articles are good and Scriptural, 
but that our people depart from them. Is there no ground 
for this reproach ? 



APPENDIX. 259 

It can not be denied that some of our people, our clergy 
especially, contend earnestly for things of little importance, 
while they say little or speak lightly of the Articles, which 
are the life, the vitals of the Church. They that would 
judge him to be no Churchman who neglects to wear a 
surplice, or in some mere ceremony deviates from a rubric, 
while yet they themselves receive the Articles with mental 
reservations or construe them differently from their obvious 
sense and evident meaning, in the language of our blessed 
Saviour, "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. " To be 
true and consistent friends of the Church, we must maintain 
all its standards, and observe all its institutions, and contend 
most earnestly for things of most importance ; and nothing 
can be of more importance than the faith by which alone we 
can hope to be justified, and the doctrines of eternal life 
which we are to preach to mankind. In the Apostle's Creed, 
we have some Articles expressed in general terms. The 
Articles contain both Creeds, and many other things, no less 
important to be received and taught ; such as the fall of man, 
the corruption of our nature, justification by faith, the neces- 
sity of repentance, and the aid of the Holy Spirit to renew 
the heart, and to help us to will and to do what is acceptable 
to God ; the doctrine of the Church, its ministry and sacra- 
ments, with other things, which might be added, but which 
are none of them explicitly taught in the Apostle's Creed. 
And yet they are no less essential than the articles which 
that Creed does contain. It is a remarkable instance or 
proof of the liberality of our Church, that she exacts a- ne- 
cessary to her communion, only those few articles to which 
almost all Christians of any denomination may subscribe. 
Let us, in all our intercourse with other Christians, imbibe 
ner spirit of liberality ; but in our teaching and in our own 
oelief, let us faithfully declare all the counsel of God, which 
we r«ave admirably summed up and briefly expressed, in the 
Articles ot tne Lnuren. and in the Homilies which ; 



260 



APtENDIX. 



comment upon the Articles. We have here the principles 
of the Reformation, the belief of Protestants, the pure doc- 
trines of the Holy Scriptures ; and it is remarkable, that so 
evidently do they express the most essential truths of the 
Bible, that almost all pious Protestants acknowledge their 
correctness. 

In proportion as other Christians see that we have among 
us the faith of Christ and the love of God, as we labor 
faithfully in the Lord's work, as we manifest a sincere desire 
to promote the general interests of pure and undefiled reli- 
gion, as we avoid bigotry and sectarism, and treat other 
Christians, not with affected respect, but with real love, our 
Church, we may humbly hope, will, through the blessing of 
God, increase. It is a great and blessed thing, too little 
thought of, to rejoice not in iniquity, but in the truth ; to be 
ever watchful to detect and ready to acknowledge our own 
faults ; while slow to believe and unwilling to expose the 
failings of others. By such fruits, we shall be known to be 
indeed of Christ, and convince others of the excellence of our 
religious institutions. 

My long experience has more and more convinced me 
that, of the clergy, they are the best friends of the Church, 
who most faithfully inculcate its doctrines, as contained in 
the Articles and explained in the Homilies. The few points, 
which are called our " distinctive principles," we must, in 
conscience, adhere to, and, in proportion to their importance, 
may contend for in our preaching ; not, however, in a 
sectarian spirit, but in charity with those who think differ- 
ently. But our great object should be to convert men to God 
and to save their souls. Men of common-sense will easily 
see whether our chief desire is, to make them Churchmen or 
to make them Christians. We may, indeed, say that these 
two things are the same. And so will others say, according 
to their respective belief, that, to be a Methodist, a Baptist, 
or a Presbyterian, and to be a Christian, are the same tnins. 



APPENDIX. 261 

The truth is, that, in either case, this is saying little to the 
purpose. We differ in some points, and each is confident 
in his own way ; none is more so than myself; but in this 
do orthodox Christians of every name agree — that repentance 
towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ should 
be the main subject of our teaching. To renew the heart 
by a living faith, and to perfect that holiness, without which 
no man shall see the Lord, should be the great end of all our 
Christian aims. 

If we respect or regard a man who is loose in his morals 
or worldly in his affections because he is a Churchman, 
more than we do a pious and exemplary Christian of another 
denomination, this is to regard the Church more than re- 
ligion^ our sect more than Christianity ', and those who 
belong to us more than those who belong to Christ, 

The Prayer-Book must be so framed and so understood as 
to agree with the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures so as 
to conform to the Prayer-Booh. 

No minister can be supposed to promise submission and 
obedience to the Church, but as the Church renders sub 
mission and obedience to God. 

By High-Church is meant that view of Ecclesiastical Pol 
ity which exalts the power; and by Loiv-Church, that view 
of Ecclesiastical Polity which ctywesses the power. Christ- 
ians may, and do, incline to one or the other of these views 
in various ways and degrees ; so that the greater part, from 
honest principle, from party interests, from sectarian influ 
ence, or from inattention to the subject, may, and probably 
do, incline to the one extreme or to the other. The same 
person, too, may in one point incline to High- Church, and 
in another to Low- Church views. Want of attention to 
tLiifc distinction causes much confusion in the minds of peo- 



262 APPENDIX. 

pie on this subject. But, we trust, there is a large class 
who are so near the truth as it is in Jesus that they ought 
not to be numbered with either of them. And to this class 
all Christians should belong. 

Ever j person on earth, at the present or any previous time, 
is either baptized or not baptized. If baptized, their baptism 
may have been more or less regular and solemn, and at- 
tended with prayers more or less appropriate. This, how- 
ever, does not make them more or less really baptized, 
Furthermore : every baptized person is a member of the 
Church, and in covenant with God. Baptism initiates into 
the Church and into the covenant. Nothing else does, or 
can. If a person be not baptized, neither confirmation, nor 
the Lord's Supper, nor yet Holy Orders, can initiate and 
make him a member of the Church. On this point, then, to 
hold that none but Episcopal baptism is valid or true, that none 
but this admits into Christ's Church, is to take a position 
fatal to our Church itself. There are multitudes who have 
been confirmed and are communicants, and not a few who 
are or have been in Holy Orders even among bishops, 
but who are not members of Christ's Church, because they 
have never been Episcopally baptized. Besides, Bishops 
thus situated have ordained inferior clergy, and probably 
consecrated other Bishops, when they were not members of 
the Church themselves, and could not, on tins theory, make 
other members. Thus our whole stream of office and mem- 
bership has been corrupted ; we know not how far, or in 
what direction, the taint may have spread ; and can never, 
without endless difficulty, ascertain who are, and who are 
not, members of the Church. 

The true Church is in Christ. We are all baptized into 
that one body, and so become members of Him. to Him, 
as Christians, we live, and move, and have our boin^ Too 
first thing which our Church, m ner Catecmsm, teaches ts, 



APPENDIX. 263 

that by baptism we are made " members of Christ. 5 ' But 
some reverse this and talk of "Christ in the Church" thus 
making the Church the container and Christ the thing con- 
tained. This is to put the Church above Christ, 

Some are unwilling to distribute the Bible without the 
Prayer-Book, alleging as a reason that the Church of God 
should go with the word of God. This, however, implies 
that there is a Church not to be found in the Bible. 



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